By Stewart Lewis
(May 26 – 13:00 ET) – Trading on the TSE 300 composite index opened higer today. But in light of the U.S. Memorial Day, on Monday, volume is light. At midday the market is in slightly negative territory.
It’s sitting down 12.31 at 9031.390. Declining issues continue to beat out advancing issues, 405 to 368. Unchanged issues number 254. Six of the 14 sub-indices are lower this morning.
Merril Lynch stock is taking another hit today. It’s down another $6.65 to $140.50. The issue was hurt yesterday when a Goldman Sachs analyst predicted the company wouldn’t meat earning expectations for the quarter. The New York Times is reporting a major re-shuffling of corporate officers in Merrill’s U.S. parent group.
On Wall Street, trading has pushed the major indices moderately higher. Traders are acting cautiously ahead of Memorial Day. Many are disappointed that U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman, Alan Greenspan, declined to give any hints about future rate hikes during a speech he gave yesterday to the Natioanl Association of Urban Bankers.
The Dow Jones industrial average added 38.03, to 10,361.95. The NASDAQ composite index crawled up 10.67 to 3,216.02, after losing 65.26 points this morning.
The Canadian dollar opened higher this morning. The dollar is sitting at US66.66¢, up from US66.50¢.