By James Langton

(March 23 – 09:00 ET) – Yesterday’s market rallies didn’t carry over into Europe and Asia for the most part. The economic data calendar is light following the interest rate hikes.

Statistics Canada is reporting January retail sales of $22.6 billion, unchanged from December 1999.Statscan also reports that foreign investors acquired $4.8 billion worth of Canadian securities in January, after dumping $6.6 billion worth in December. Canadian investors added $2.3 billion in foreign securities to their portfolios.

Those foreign securities are losing value, at least in Europe this morning. Retailers and drug stocks are leading the way down. London’s FTSE is down 41 points to 6,569. The French CAC 40 has dropped 18 points to 6,262. Germany’s DAX is sliding too, off 41 points to 7,757.

In international merger news France Telecom SA is buying 28.5% of Germany’s Mobilcom AG for US$3.6 billion. The top merger rumour has Chase Manhattan Corp. talking with U.K. investment bank Robert Fleming Holdings Ltd. about a possible buyout.

Bloomberg is reporting that OPEC may boost oil production by 1 million to 2 million barrels per day.

In Asia the quiet trading continued in Japan, while Hong Kong remains upbeat. The Nikkei closed down 29 points to 19,705. The Hang Seng
added 164 points to 17,710.

The big news in Canadian business is a proposed large asset swap between cable giants Rogers and Shaw. The firms have agreed to swap Rogers’ B.C. cable ops for Shaw’s in Southern Ontario and New Brunswick. Shaw will sell its 9.1% and 9.6% holdings in Cogeco Cable and Cogeco Inc. respectively to Rogers for $44 per share. The pair will merge the operations of @Home Canada and Excite Canadainto a single portal with
Rogers holding 51%, Shaw 22.5% and Excite@Home 22.5%. Shaw and Rogers will also commit all of their Internet backbone traffic to 360networks, a firm that Shaw just invested US$100 million in. Rogers has agreed to invest $125 million for 49% of the new company. Rogers will also be able to purchase US$25 million of Shaw’s stake at cost.

In other news, Thomson Corp. is buying the online information business of The Dialog Corporation PLC for US$275 million.

Sun Life Financial Services of Canada Inc. completes its $1.8 billion IPO today listing on the Toronto Stock Exchange and New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “SLC”. It will also list on the London Stock Exchange under the symbol “SFC” and on the Philippine Stock Exchange as symbol “SLC”.