By IB Times Staff Reporter: Subscribe to IB's RSS feed
August 30, 2010 10:14 AM EDT
Futures on major U.S. stock indices point to a higher opening on Monday ahead of July consumer spending data, which may indicate the pace of the economic recovery.
Futures on the S&P 500 are up 1.9 points to 1065.60, futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average are up 7 points to 10,148.00 and Nasdaq100 futures are up 4.25 points to 1,793.50.
M&A activity will be on the spotlight, after Sanofi-Aventis made a $18.5 billion formal public offer for Genzyme. Infineon said Intel is buying the German chipmaker's wireless business for about $1.4 billion in cash.
Manufacturing major 3M announced on Monday that it agreed to acquire biometric identification company Cogent Inc. for a total of about $943 million or $10.50 per share to expand into security services.
On the economic front, investors keenly await for the July personal income and consumption data, which are due to release before the market opens. Personal spending probably grew 0.3 percent in July after being flat in June, according to a Bloomberg News survey of economists.
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On Friday, stocks climbed most likely on short-covering and technical buying, as traders apparently shrugged off a revenue warning from key tech giant Intel and some less-than-optimistic comments from the Fed Chairman.
As the day progressed, investors seemed to take a rosier view of Bernanke's statement that the central banks was prepared to act with more stimulus should the economy further deteriorate; as well as a second reading of second-quarter GDP that was revised downwardly, but still came up better than expected.
Intel warned that its third-quarter revenue might fall below of its own estimates by more than $1 billion. However, Intel shares finished the session 1.05 percent higher.
Before market opens:
• European shares are currently trading higher amid flurry of M&A news, including Sanofi-Aventis’ offer for Genzyme, and Intel's deal with Infineon Technologies.
• UK markets are closed on Monday for a public holiday. Germany’s DAX30 is trading up by 12.01 points and France’s CAC 40 trading up by 0.11 points.
• The euro fell 0.0044 percent to 1.2719 against the dollar and the yen also declined 0.41 percent against the greenback.
• Crude oil futures fell 0.72 percent, while copper futures rose 0.15 percent. In precious metal sector, gold futures slightly rose 0.04 percent, while silver futures are up 0.32 percent.
During Asian Market hours:
• Asian stocks closed higher on Monday after the Bank of Japan (BOJ) has announced new measures to contain the rising value of the yen.
• Japanese Nikkei rose 1.76 percent or 158.20 points to 9,149.26, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 0.68 percent and Chinese Shanghai ended up 1.61 percent.
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