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Wall Street makes early gains

Published: 00:26 08 Apr 2015 AEST

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Wall Street stocks opened higher as Friday’s weak non-farm payroll figures eased Fed interest rate hike fears.

The Dow opened 80 points higher to 17,960, Nasdaq rose 25 to 4,941 and the S&P 500 nudged up 6 to 2,087.

The big mover was banking giant JP Morgan, rising more than 1.3% to US$61 after an upgrade by broker Bernstein.  

Credit card giant American Express led the fallers, shedding more than 1% to US$78 after a downgrade at broker Oppenheimer.

Pharma giants Pfizer and Merck announced they are finalising an agreement to co-promote Pfizer’s lymphoma inhibitor in Europe. Shares rose in both by more than 0.5%

Delivery company FedEx jumped 3.6% to US$172 after it said it is to purchase European competitor TNT for approximately US$4.4bn pending EU approval.

Software developer Informatica has confirmed it is to be taken over by Permira Advisers and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board for $5.3 billion. The news sent shares 4% higher to US$47.

Social media expert Facebook, meanwhile, is being sued for collating facial data from users to implement a new facial recognition feature without written permission. Shares held steady at US$82.

In the UK, FTSE 100 rose more than 112 points to 6,946 led by mining and oil companies after a strong weekend for commodity prices.

BG Group (LON:BG) was the big riser, adding more than 5.5% to 900p after it announced a farm-in agreement with Petro Matad (MATD) in Mongolia.

Elsewhere in Mongolia, shares in Copper miner Kincora jumped 20% when trading resumed while Gold miner Entree gold rose more than 13%.


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