Working towards a rally Strong jobs report that hit during Friday's market holiday should give stocks a lift; report says Dow Chemical could be biggest buyout ever. April 9 2007: 6:46 AM EDT
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The unexpectedly strong monthly jobs reading that was released during Friday's market holiday and a report of a $50 billion bid being planned for Dow Chemical could give stocks a strong start for the week.
As of 6:25 a.m. the S&P and Nasdaq futures, which predict the direction of stocks at the open, were sharply higher.
Friday the Labor Department reported that employers added 180,000 jobs in March, while the unemployment rate fell to 4.4 percent. Both readings were much stronger than forecasts.
A report in a London paper said that a group of Middle Eastern investors and American buyout firms is preparing a $50 billion offer for Dow Chemical (Charts), the nation's largest chemical company, in what could be the world's biggest ever leveraged buyout.
In other buyout news, Citigroup (Charts) said Monday it will buy Taiwan's Bank of Overseas Chinese for $426 million. And the Wall Street Journal reports it is considering the purchase of hedge fund Old Lane LP as a way of bringing on board Vikram Pandit, a veteran Wall Street executive who started the fund in 2006. The deal could top $600 million, according to the paper.
Oil prices were down in early trading, taking prices below the $64 a barrel mark. U.S. light crude fell 42 cents to $63.86 a barrel in electronic trading.
Treasury prices, which fell sharply on the jobs report, was little changed in early trading Monday, leaving the yield on the 10-year note near the 4.75 percent level reached late Friday. The dollar also was little changed against the euro and the yen.
Markets in Asia closed sharply higher on the U.S. jobs report, but stock exchanges in Europe were closed for the Easter Monday holiday.
Among other companies in the news, Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (Charts), which bought a $3.2 billion stake in railroad Burlington Northern (Charts), according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and Internet phone service Vonage Holdings (Charts), which lost a court decision Friday in a patent dispute with Verizon Communications (Charts), Vonage's lawyer said the decision amounted to a "bullet to the head" for the upstart phone service.
DOW Price at posting:
0.0¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
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