Tuesday April 22, 10:48 AM
US midday: Miners and financials lead charge
LONDON (ShareCast) - US stocks headed higher this morning, buoyed by financials and mining stocks. Financials took heart from news that Washington Mutual (NYSE: WM - news)
is in negotiations with a group led by private-equity firm TFG that could lead to the consortium pumping $5bn into the savings and loan giant, which recently announced more than $3bn of write-downs. Miners, meanwhile, tracked metal prices higher. Across the markets, the Dow Jones industrial average is up 94 points at 12,703 and the S&P 500 is up 12 at 1,382. The NASDAQ Composite is 13 points to the good at 1,382. Internet portal Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO - news) ! declined after reiterating its rejection of Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT - news) 's cash plus shares offer. Microsoft has threatened to launch a hostile offer at a lower price if Yahoo! does not voluntarily agree to its merger proposal by 26 April. Yahoo! maintains that the Microsoft terms do not place a fair value on Yahoo! Microsoft's share price tended firmer after the rebuff. Elsewhere in the tech sector Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL - news) shares were wanted after Thomas Weisel Partners (TWPG - news) raised the consumer electronics darling to "overweight" from "market weight". With crude oil prices continuing to rise oil companies Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM - news) and Chevron (NYSE: CVX - news) had a good morning. Both sets of shareholders seemed to be happy with the deal that saw Discover Financial Services take Diners Club International off Citigroup (ASFZ.PK - news) 's hands for $165m, as the share price of both companies moved up.
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