Good Morning Don ...It is really great to wake up to see your posts, please keep up with the good work specially your Class I buys that you used to post, as a lot of us did well with that section. Best wishes as always Burjis.
P.S. Something interesing I just read. Wake-Up Call: Friday's Gains Likely to Extend This Morning
By Justin Lahart
Staff Reporter
12/8/97 8:27 AM ET
Friday's rally on the back of the surprisingly strong November jobs report had a lot of people scratching their heads over the weekend. Despite the befuddlement, investors look like they have no problem bidding stocks higher again this morning.
The S&P 500 futures are up 2.40 at 8:10 a.m. Friday, they closed at a significant premium to the S&P 500 close, so stocks are cued to hop at the open. The 30-year Treasury bond is up 4/32 at 100 18/32, dropping the yield to 6.09%.
Japanese stocks slipped, with domestic shares taking the brunt of it. Fear about Japan's overall economy, not just its financial system, is seeping into the marketplace, and talk of recession is heating up. Compounding the problem for domestic issues: the continued weakening of the yen. Many currency traders expected influential Finance Minister Eisuke Sakakibara to make some comment about the recent jump in the dollar at a currency symposium in Tokyo today. That he kept quiet on the issue is considered bullish for the dollar going forward, encouraging portfolio managers to shift out of domestic stocks and into global blue-chips.
The Nikkei fell 292.91 to close at 16,131.57.
Also in Asia, Korean fretting continued apace. The South Korean stock market dropped 4% as nervous investors wondered if the massive IMF bailout package would do enough to right the terrible economic and financial problems.
But not all was grim in Asia. Friday's rally on Wall Street, along with falling interbank rates, helped push Hong Kong's stock market higher. The steady declines in local interest rates have many of Hong Kong's queasy investors convinced that the currency attacks on the region have finally passed. The Hang Seng closed up 195.34 to close at 11,7222.94.
In Germany, the strong dollar continues to help out Frankfurt's export-oriented stock market. The Dax closed at 4223.36, up 53.28.
London stocks are higher. The FTSE is up 68.80 at 5211.70.
First American (FATN:Nasdaq) announced that it will acquire Deposit Guarantee (DEP:NYSE) in a stock deal valued at $2.7 billion. Deposit Guarantee shareholders will receive 1.17 shares of First American stock for each share of Deposit Guarantee -- about a $12 premium over Deposit Guarantee's close of 52 3/8.
$2.7 billion is peanuts, though, compared to the big bank merger overseas. Early today Union Bank Switzerland and Swiss Bank announced that they will merge. The combined bank, with $592 billion in assets, will be the second largest in the world following Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi (third largest if you count Japan's massive postal savings system).
The merger may cause a little fallout in Wall Street -- the two banks U.S. investment arms, UBS Securities and SBC Warburg, have a bit of overlap. With Smith Barney and Salomon Brothers under one roof and NatWest Markets' U.S. business shuttered, there are going to be a lot of analysts knocking on doors. |
