Before the bell 5-4-07: Futures higher on mergers, ahead of jobs report

Posted May 4th 2007 8:05AM by Melly Alazraki
Filed under: Before the Bell, Earnings Reports, Consumer Experience, Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), Yahoo! (YHOO), Starbucks (SBUX), Indices, Eastman Kodak (EK), Economic Data

Stocks seem to be heading higher according to stock futures in this busy morning. Nonfarm payroll are to be released today, media-merger reports are dominating headlines and earnings are still coming in.

Yesterday, U.S. markets closed a little higher, as the Dow Jones Industrial Average marked yet another record. Some good news on the economic front helped markets recover from General Motors disappointing earnings.

Today:

The much anticipated labor report is due out today at 8:30 a.m., before the opening bell. Economists forecast that nonfarm payrolls rose by 100,000 in April, less than 180,000 in March. Unemployment rate is expected to have risen to 4.5% from 4.4% the month before. Hourly earnings is expected to rise 0.3%, same as in March.

M&A reports:

Several stories are in the news this morning starting with reports on the New York Post that Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) asked Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) to enter formal talks about buying the web portal company. The deal could easily be worth around $50 billion. Shares of Microsoft are down a little in pre-market trading, but shares of Yahoo! are near $33, rising nearly 17% in pre-market.
Another report is that Reuters (NASDAQ: RTRSY) says that it has been approached with a takeover bid, but didn't name the bidder. This deal could easily surpass $15 billion. Reuters shares have shot up 24% in London.
British music group EMI Group Plc also said it had received a number of takeover approaches, after a report in the Financial Times named One Equity private equity firm as one of the suitors. EMI shares are rising some 8% in London.

Earnings:

Starbucks Corp. (NYSE: SBUX) reported first quarter earnings after the close yesterday. The coffee company's results were inline with estimates.
Eastman Kodak Co. (NYSE: EK) reported a narrower loss and KBR Inc. (NYSE: KBR) earnings rose 7.7%, but missed expectations.

Overseas, Asian stocks closed mostly higher with several markets reaching record highs. European stocks rose for a fourth day after Reuters and EMI said they received takeover approaches.

Tags: ek, goog, kbr, msft, rtrsy, sbux, yhoo

Print this

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

5-04-2007 @ 10:32AM

Ira Lee Newlander said...

When you have an image company that seems so obviously shy about
including images in its annual report, what do you expect? Look at
the annual reports of Ford or McDonald's ... or almost any company:
photos of people; or products and places. Really sad what we have
come to. I had hoped for better, apparently in vain.

www.ronnaschary.com