By James Langton
(August 23 – 09:00 ET) – There are no economic releases in either Canada or the U.S. today. The trader sentiment is that the Fed is now out of the picture at least until Novemeber, a view echoed by a prominent Fed watcher in the Washington Post this morning.
Crude oil prices are tracking higher still. They are up almost 4% after reports that U.S. inventories remain very low and crude supplies are near a 24-year low.
In general the markets look weak today with tech shares taking the lead down, profit-taking seems to be the only reason. The FTSE is down 34 points to 6,551. The CAC 40 is off 29 to 6,484 and the DAX is down 56 to 7,193.
Profit-takers are slugging names such as Sun and Intel overseas, also taking down Finmatica SpA, Ericsson AB and Telefonica.
The same trend prevailed in Asia overnight, too. The Nikkei closed off 18 points to 16,436. The Hang Seng finished down 241 to 17,427.
In business news, Sierra Wireless Inc. and Sprint PCS are announcing the new Sprint PCS Wireless Web Modem. The modem will provide wireless access to the Internet and corporate network applications.
TransCanada PipeLines has announced an agreement to sell its Netherlands assets to GDF INTERNATIONAL S.A., a wholly owned subsidiary of Gaz de France, for approximately $501 million.