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Wall Street flat in early trading

Published: 23:55 21 Apr 2015 AEST

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US stocks remained fairly flat as the bell rang on Wall Street today as attention turns to Greece and a possible exit from the Eurozone. 

With Eurzone officials meeting later this week, tt was a nervy start in the US.

Following on from an up and down day in the UK, the tech-heavy Nasdaq managed a respectable 0.5% gain to 5,019 while the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 14 points and the S&P 500 rose 4 points. 

Dow Jones heavyweight DuPont, saw revenue in the first quarter fall short of expectations but earnings per share was higher at US$1.21 against US$1.17.  

Also today, activist investor Nelson Peltz is pitching a plan to investors to break up the company at a meeting. It led the fallers on the Dow Jones, shedding 2.25% to US$71.

This big news of the day was Israeli-based pharma giant Teva’s proposed acquisition of rival Mylan for US$82 a share.

Shares in Teva rose 2.75% to US$65while Mylan’s jumped 8.5% to US$73 on the back of the deal, valued at US$40bn. 

Technology expert IBM said its profit margin was better than expected while revenue was bang on target. Despite the news shares eased 0.4% to US$165.

Meanwhile Apple’s sales of its iPhone 6 have dropped 5% since the release of the new Samsung Galaxy according to research by Atlas Research. Shares slipped 0.2% to US$127.

Shares in car manufacturers General Motors were very flat at US$37 despite the company saying it sold 2.4mln units worldwide in the first quarter with sales in China up 9%. 

Twitter has begun vending tickets for large sporting events synch as the NBA playoffs according to a source. Shares were also flat at US$51.

In the UK, the FTSE 100 was 20 points higher as the US markets opened, with Sky (LON:SKY) leading the way forward after nearly a quarter of a million new customers signed up in its third quarter. Shares were 4.8% higher to £11.03.


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