By James Langton

(February 21 – 09:00 ET) – The U.S. markets are closed for President’s Day, so
today, stock traders are short of leadership, and are generally following Friday’s sell-off. There are no major economic numbers out today to give any other direction to markets.

In Europe stocks are down between 0.5% and 2%. Wall Street’s weakness and its interest rate fears seem to be the prime market movers. The highly-valued telecoms are leading the decliners across the region. London’s FTSE is leading the way, down 115 points to 6,050. France’s CAC 40 is down 98 points to 5,964. Germany’s DAX is more subdued, down 43 points so far to 7,530.

The big news in Europe this morning is the proposed merger of insurers CGU PLC and Norwich Union PLC. The £7.5 billion (US$12 billion) stock swap deal will create one of the UK’s biggest insurers.

In Asia the expectation of interest rates hikes in the West is evident too. The yen is falling to its lowest level in six months against the U.S. dollar and the euro, on anticipation that U.S. and Euro rates are headed up faster than Japanese rates. Asian stock markets are falling too on the heels of the Wall Street sell-off. The Nikkei closed down 245 points to 19,544. The Hang Seng index dropped 277 points to 16,322.

In other business news, Canada Brokerlink Inc. is reporting that it has received a friendly $1.20 bid from a numbered Alberta company financed by Allianz of Canada Inc. It’s trumping the $1.02 bid from Equisure Financial Network Inc. Brokerlink’s board is supporting the new offer and has dropped its proposal to merge with rival Vector Intermediaries Inc. Allianz and the Dominion of Canada General Insurance Co.have entered into a lock-up agreement for its 16% of
Brokerlin.

Also U.S. Liberty Media is set to take a 19.9% stake in media firm Corus Entertainment. Cognicase is announcing a deal with Blue Cross that could bring it $100 million in revenues over the next 10 years.