Posted on 06/28/2004 5:28:25 AM PDT by Libloather
Stock Futures Point to Higher Opening
17 minutes ago
By Nick Olivari
NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stock futures pointed to a higher market open on Monday after the earlier-than-expected transfer of Iraqi sovereignty to an interim government.
The news that the United States handed over sovereignty two days ahead of expectations formally ended the 14-month occupation and overshadowed expectations for a rate hike by the Federal Reserve on Wednesday.
Watson Pharmaceuticals (NYSE:WPI - news) fell before the opening bell after it forecast lower-than-anticipated results. Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq:MSFT - news) may gain after the European Commission (news - web sites) temporarily suspended sanctions on the world's No.1 software maker.
"Iraq is the reason for the bounce right now," said Anthony Chan, senior managing director and chief economist at Columbus, Ohio-based Banc One Investment Advisors Corp., which oversees $182 billion. "There has been a lifting of some anxiety clouds associated because of the early transfer of power.
S&P 500 futures for the September contract rose 9.5 points to 1144.70, or 5.6 points above fair value, indicating the index may open 0.6 percent higher, accounting for dividends, interest rates and time to expiration on the contract.
Dow Jones industrial futures rose 74 points on the September contract, while Nasdaq 100 futures rose 13.5 points.
As the day progresses the spotlight may shift to the Fed, Chan said.
The central bank is widely expected to raise interest rates by 25 basis points on Wednesday, taking the key overnight lending rate between banks to 1.25 percent from a 46-year low of 1 percent.
"It won't be the actual increase, but rather the associated language with the small tightening move that is likely to occur on Wednesday" that the market is looking toward, Chan said.
MICROSOFT SUSPENSION
In corporate news, Watson Pharmaceuticals fell to $30 in electronic trading on Monday, down from Friday's close of $32.29 after it forecast second-quarter and full-year results below Wall Street's targets, citing lower-than-expected sales of women's health and general products.
The EC on Sunday said it had temporarily suspended an order requiring Microsoft to sell a version of its Windows operating system without a media player software, just before the order would have taken effect.
Shares of Elan Corp Plc (NYSE:ELN - news) rose to $25.30 on the INET electronic brokerage on Monday, up from a Friday close on the New York Stock Exchange (news - web sites) of $23.97, after the Irish drugmaker and its U.S. partner, Biogen Idec (Nasdaq:BIIB - news) said that U.S. regulators had given their drug Antegren a priority review.
Defense contractor Lockheed Martin Corp. (NYSE:LMT - news) may be active after it called off its planned $1.66 billion acquisition of Titan Corp. (NYSE:TTN - news) on Saturday, ending an almost yearlong courtship. THOMSON MAKES ACQUISITION
Electronic publisher Thomson Corp. (Toronto:TOC.TO - news) (NYSE:TOC - news) said on Monday it would buy U.S.-based Information Holdings Inc. (NYSE:IHI - news) for about $441 million to boost its expertise in scientific and health-care publishing.
No major economic figures are scheduled for release on Monday. Later in the week, the market will wade through a slew of economic data, including Friday's payroll data, Tuesday's consumer confidence survey and Thursday's manufacturing index.
I see Chuck Schummer doing damage control on FOX and freinds allready this morning. He says the Bush administration is "finally" doing what democrats had asked in getting NATO involved.
Great! it's not going to be easy - attacks are likely going to continue, if not worsen, through the fall - but it's a first step. The US, the world, and most of all the Iraqi people will be better off if this government succeds than if the terrorist "insurgents" win. We have the power to ensure the result, if we feel it's "worth it." But it's the Iraqi people who will ultimately have to defend their government.
I hope very much that they succeed!
Yep. Schumer, Kerry, Her Heinous, Soros, Moore, they won't let up.
And let's not forget about the terrorists! :-)
That was really funny! But then again, sad . . . because it's TRUE!
Can anyone point me to a stock group on Freep? I remember last year some guy use to post stock threads everyday and he was brilliant. I took a break from stocks and now I`m back into it (sort of, I want to get back into it), I took a break from all computers matter of fact. What happened to the old Freep main page anyway? I remember there use to be a whole bunch of categories you could shoot to, now I just get news articles.
Try this -> http://www.freerepublic.com/home.htm
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