By James Langton
(April 24 – 09:00 ET) – Market data is more sparse than ever this morning, with almost all overseas markets closed for Easter Monday. Only Japan was open today. It closed up 227 points to 18,480.
The big story of the day is the Wall Street Journal is reporting that Microsoft may be forced to sell off its office products division as part of its settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice. That story is dominating the news, and stock futures are pointing deeply down as a result.
Without much economic news traders will be waiting on earnings reports to move the markets, although most of those are due later in the week too.
In Canada, traders are awaiting results from Nortel Networks Corp., due out tomorrow. Filmmakers, IMAX corp., are out today saying their results will be two or three cents ahead of analyst estimates.