Good morning. Happy Monday.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed mostly up. Singapore gained more than 3%, India more than 2% and Hong Kong and Australia more than 1%. China closed flat.
Europe is currently up across the board. Belgium, Norway and London are up 2% or more, Austria, Germany and Switzerland are up more than 1%.
40 minutes before the open, futures here in the States are mixed. Nas 100 is up 2.50 (0.21%) to trade at 1191 and SPX is up 0.25 (0.03%) to trade at 869.25.
Oil has jumped for the second consecutive day to above $40 due to widening conflict between Israel and Palestinian militants.
UK kids clothing retailer Adams is on the brink of going into a form of bankruptcy.
Kuwait’s government on Sunday scrapped a $17.4 billion joint venture with U.S. petrochemical giant Dow Chemical (DOW) after criticism from lawmakers that could have led to a political crisis in this small oil-rich state.
Rohm & Haas (ROH) says their proposed acquisition by Dow Chemical will not be impacted by the canceled Kuwait deal.
GM supplier Delphi (DPHIQ.PK) has suspended work at a factory in China due to shrinking demand.
Princeton Review Inc. said Monday that it will sell its K-12 Services unit to a CORE Projects & Technologies Ltd. subsidiary for $9.5 million in cash.
Egg producer Cal-Maine (CALM) said its Q2 profit fell 32% on a slowdown in sales to egg-product makers and the food service industry while feed costs remain high.
According to the New York Times, the FDIC is selling IndyMac to a group of private-equity firms and a hedge fund.
Frontier Communications (FTR) has agreed to license interactive voice technology from Ronald A. Katz Technology Licensing LP as part of a patent litigation settlement, the companies said Monday.
Struggling retailer Parent Co. said it has voluntarily filed for Ch. 11 bankruptcy protection and will consider selling some or all of its operations.
Smithfield Foods (SFD), Tyson Foods (TSN) and Cargill are among the companies named in Mexico’s suspension of meat imports from 30 US processing plants.
Wal-Mart (WMT) will begin selling Apple’s (APPL) iPhone 3G at nearly 2,500 stores beginning Sunday. They’re only the second independent retailer (Best Buy is the other) to sell the phone.
Gold is up 1.8% and silver is up 4.9%.
Crude oil is up 2.27 to trade at 39.98.
—————————————————————————————-
| UPGRADES | SPF |
| DOWNGRADES | LGF, CWT, DOW, HON, CHTR, FPL |
—————————————————————————————-
| EARNINGS | |
| before the open | none |
| during trading | none |
| after the close | RICK |
—————————————————————————————-
ECONOMIC RELEASES
none
—————————————————————————————-