Look for an up morning in Canadian markets

(September 30 – 09:00 EST) – Despite mixed markets in Europe and Asia, futures on the S&P have been pointing up all morning.

In Europe, markets have been pretty quiet today, trading mixed to lower. In London the FTSE 100 is off about 45 points. Paris’s CAC 40 is down just four points, while the DAX has slipped more than 25 points.

Asian markets were deeply mixed overnight. Today marked the end of the first half of Japan’s fiscal year. The Yen traded down on continued anticipation of some sort of intervention. The slide in the Yen drove export heavy stocks – autos and techs – higher. It was also reported that Sakura Bank and Deutsche Bank have agreed to work together in the securities business – news which pushed Sakura higher too.

The Nikkei closed up 323 points on the day. In Hong Kong traders shrugged off the strength in Japan and focused on their own fears of U.S. interest rate hikes. There s a growing consensus that the Fed will not raise rates at next week’s meeting, but it may well hike rates at its November meeting.

Statistics Canada is reporting that gross domestic product was up 0.4% in July, driven by improvements in factory output. This was the 12th straight month of GDP gains. In the U.S., second quarter GDP revised upward to a 1.6% increase, off an expectation of 1.8%. Jobless claims for last week were up 25,000 to 29,000.

In business news, BCE Emergis announced that it intends to sell its Sports & Leisure division to MicroTempus Inc. for 6 million shares of MicroTempus. This will no doubt put some air into the Montreal-based firm.

CHC Helicopter is announcing its earnings for the first quarter of fiscal 2000, ended July 31. Earnings came in at 32¢ per share, down from $3.45 per share in the period last year. Although excluding unusual sale items from last year’s Q1, earnings were just 38¢ per share.

Bracknell is announcing that it will acquire Nationwide Electric for $76.7 million, a deal that doubles the size of Bracknell.

Teleglobe is providing earnings warnings once again – projecting per share earnings from core operations for 1999 to come in between 48¢ and 50¢. EPS for the third quarter of 1999 is expected to be between 4¢ and 5¢, while the range for the fourth quarter is 19¢ to 21¢.