Stocks Moving Higher in Early Action

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The Nasdaq 100 was recently staging a comeback after dipping violently at the open this morning, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average was stubbornly trodding higher into the green. The Nasdaq 100 was recently 2 to 3789 and the Nasdaq Composite Index was up 15 to 3875. The Dow was up 75 to 10,524 and the S&P 500 was 7 higher to 1472.

With little or no data to guide the market this week, and the Federal Reserve's June 28 meeting just around the corner, the market will probably focus on company news and indulge in some more defensive sideways action today.

"It seems like a quiet Monday. Investors are just sort of trying to figure out what to do. It looks like a very mixed bag for today," said Phil Marber, head trader at Cantor Fitzgerald.

"The Nasdaq is hanging in there. After tanking at the open, it is going the other way rapidly. I think the Nasdaq is OK. It's looking kind of stable," he added.

As the pre-announcement season kicks into full gear, and earnings warnings take center stage, fears that an economic slowdown will mean weaker corporate profits in coming quarters have sent investors scrambling to stash their cash in reliable value stocks.

Most strategists say earnings for this quarter still look strong, but in a jittery interest rate environment, nobody likes bad news.

Meanwhile, bank stocks were turning around today after tanking last week, and the Nasdaq Financial 100 was up 8 to 1578. Last week, the index shed some 83 points to 1570 last week, over half of which came off on Friday after bad earnings pre-announcement news sparked worries about loan quality.

"The banks are probably going to bounce," said Peter Blatchford, a trader at Miller Tabak.

Otherwise, there is quite a bit of merger and acquisition news out there today.

The boards of British companies Vivendi and Canal Plus and Canada-based Seagram(VO Quote) will meet today and are expected to settle terms on a three-way merger by Tuesday.

But other merger deals aren't doing so well, as talks between ING Barings(ING Quote)and Aetna(AET Quote) and between Global Crossing(GBLX Quote) and Equant(ENT Quote) have broken down over price considerations.

And Symbian, a mobile phone joint venture between hand-held computer and handset makers, is planning to float much sooner than previously stated, according to press reports. British hand-held computer maker Psion and handset makers Nokia(NOK Quote), Ericsson(ERICY Quote), Motorola(MOT Quote) and Matsushita(MC Quote) are partners in the joint venture. TheStreet.com recently wrote about this story.

Elsewhere in telecom, AT&T Wireless(AWE Quote) said today it will invest $3.3 billion in new wireless systems.

Bonds/Economy

The Treasury market was shedding some of the strength won in a Friday rally on cool data, with the 10-year note down 6/32 at 103 17/32 and yielding 6.009%.

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International

European markets were mixed at midsession with London sliding and Paris and Frankfurt up but losing steam.

The Paris CAC was up 18.21, or 0.28%, to 6474.47, while Frankfurt's Xetra Dax was up 24.85, or 0.35%, to 7156.25.

Across the channel, London's FTSE was off 38.3, or 0.59%, to 6487.7.

The euro was lately trading down at $0.9603.

Asian markets continued to trade sluggishly overnight and closed mostly lower except for Japan.

Tokyo's newest venture market and a sister bourse to the U.S. Nasdaq, the Nasdaq Japan, got started without a hitch overnight with only two of the eight firms making their debuts falling into negative territory. Against this backdrop, some well-known high-tech stocks got a boost overnight, helping the Nikkei grind higher.

The key Nikkei index closed up 273.04, or 1.67%, to 16591.35.

But with national elections coming up in six days, most Japanese investors looked like they would sit this week out, and volume was low.

The greenback was near flat from Friday levels and stood slightly lower at 106.20 against the yen. It was recently just barely higher at 105.67 yen.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index, meanwhile, shed 166.91 points, or 1.0%, to 16,267.47 as index heavyweights and property shares took a beating.

Elsewhere in Asia, Korea's Kospi index shed 3.66 to 755.38, while Taiwan's TWSE index lost 19.70 to 8751.10.

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