By Stewart Lewis
(May 24 – 13:00 ET) – Blue chip stocks are on the rise this morning in the U.S. Investors are looking for stable investments since tech stocks continue to languish. A big merger in the U.S. airline industry sparked buying. The country’s largest airline, United Airlines has announced that it is buying U.S. Airways.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 57.22 to 10,479.49 this morning. On the other hand, the NASDAQ composite index was down 23.09 at 3,141.46. Technology shares pulled down the NASDAQ for a sixth consecutive session.
The Canadian dollar opened moderately strong today, despite continued fear that interest rates will rise again in the near future. The Canadian dollar sat at US66.45¢ this morning climbing from US66.33¢ yesterday, a new low for the year.
Meanwhile the TSE 300 composite index slipped further this morning. It’s down 22.73 to 8963.85 on slightly better volume of approximately 65,000,000 shares exchanged. Declining issues continue to outnumber advancing issues. This morning ratio was 514 to 332, with 250 issues unchanged.
As in the U.S., tech stocks are hurting. ATI Technologies was bludgeoned this morning. It dropped $10.85 to $14.60. Certicom Corp fell $7.40 to $54.80 . BCE Emergis slid $3.30 to $57.95.