U.S. stocks in London seen robust on techs, merger
Reuters Story - March 11, 1998 06:51
%GB %STX %US %.L/US UW WMX INTC MOT CPQ IBM SUNW MSFT V%REUTER P%RTR
LONDON, March 11 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks in London looked
firmer on Wednesday, boosted by strong technology issues and
news of a mega-merger between USA Waste Services Inc and
Waste Management Inc , traders said.
"We're looking better, with follow-through momentum from the
tech stocks coupled with a huge potential merger," said one
trader.
The two waste service firms on Wednesday announced a merger
deal which will give the combined firm a market capitalization
of over $20 billion, based on yesterday's closing prices. Waste
Management was quoted at $26-3/4 from its $25-3/16 close.
The two companies forecast combined operating earnings of
$2.90 to $3.05 per share in 1999 and $3.55 to $3.70 in 2000.
The Dow was expected to open 10 to 15 points higher, after
shooting to yet another record close of 8,643.12 on Tuesday. The
March S&P future traded around one point above fair value at
1066.5 on Globex at 1106 GMT.
Technology stocks shrugged off recent profit warnings from
three bellwether stocks Intel Corp , Motorola Inc
and Compaq .
Compaq was marked up $3/8 at $25-3/4, International Business
Machines up $3/8 at $98 and Intel up $3/4 at $76-1/4.
"People are amazed by the market's resilience," said one
trader. "The market is still able to take quite negative news in
its stride," he added.
Sun Microsystems Inc was bid at $43-1/4 from a
close of $42-7/16 after a Wall Street Journal report that
Microsoft Corp was introducing tools that encourage
programmers to use Sun's Java language to write software that
runs only on Windows.
A report in the same newspaper that Intel was starting a
for-profit service to help fix computer problems for consumers
and small businesses was also seen as beneficial to the shares.
There was little of interest expected on the economic front,
with January wholesale inventories due at 1500 GMT and The
Chicago Federal Reserve's Midwest manufacturing index for
January at 1700 GMT.
January inventories are expected to be up 0.3 percent after
a 0.9 percent December increase. No forecast was available for
the Chicago index, which rose 0.8 percent in December. |
