By James Langton
(March 24 – 09:00 ET) – Markets stand poised around some psychological monuments. The TSE peeked above 10,000 for the first time yesterday, before slipping back. The Dow popped back above 11,000, and the Nasdaq is flirting with 5,000 again. With fresh economic data scarce and the latest rate moves recently in the market, traders should be looking at fundamentals again today.
There’s a slightly more bearish tone in pre-market trading after the minutes were released from the February Federal Open Market Committee. The hawkish notes have some investors worried about large, looming rate hikes.
There was no data out in Canada today. Durable goods orders fell 2.3% in February in the U.S., mostly due to transports. Economists were expecting a slight rise in the numbers, although this low figure is unlikely to convince many people that the economy has cooled.
In Europe, stocks are up, led by renewed merger talk surrounding German utilities Veba AG and Viag AG. The U.K. markets are also strong — the FTSE is up 132 points in London to 6,727. The French CAC 40 has added 56 points to 6,324. Germany is up 152 points on the DAX to 7,847.
Veba and Viag are reportedly considering a merger with Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux SA of France. This is lifting utilities. Insurers and Internet stocks are also up.
Markets wrapped the week positively in Asia overnight after the big gains on Wall Street yesterday. The Nikkei closed up 253 points to 19,958. The Hang Seng added 74 points to 17,785.
Japan’s Softbank Corp. says it will issue US$2.8 billion in new shares by the end of April.
Window dressing for the upcoming year-end may also be helping push markets higher.