NBC Sets Partnership With Xoom.com, Snap

The deal creates an Internet concern affiliated with a major broadcast network.

Author:
Justin Lahart
Publish date:
May 10, 1999 9:20 AM EDT

Despite a resurgence of merger news this morning, it looks like stocks will have a halting start to the week.

Given what happened Friday, this probably isn't too much of a surprise. That stocks were able to break ranks and head higher despite the bond market's poor reaction to what looked like a favorable

employment report

was somewhat bizarre. Today the Treasuries are under pressure again, and that's putting a somewhat negative tone on equities.

Now back to the merger front. First off, community Web site

Xoom.com

(XMCM)

agreed to a three-way merger with

CNet's

(CNET) - Get ZW Data Action Technologies Inc. Report

Snap!

Internet service and the Web assets owned by

General Electric's

(GE) - Get General Electric Company Report

NBC

. The new company,

Scroll to Continue

TheStreet Recommends

INVESTING

DIS TWTR

3 hours ago

PERSONAL FINANCE

57 minutes ago

Image of the exterior of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation with text overlay: "What Is the Savings & Loan Crisis?"

2 hours ago

NBC Internet

, will be the seventh largest Web site, Xoom said.

Then there are reports that

Chevron

(CHV)

is in talks to acquire

Texaco

(TX) - Get Ternium S.A. American Depositary Shares (each representing ten shares USD1.00 par value) Report

, and the news that

HSBC

will buy

Republic New York

(RNB)

and

Safra Republic

(a Luxembourg-based bank Republic has a 49% stake in) for $10.3 billion.

Plus, Internet stocks are benefiting from a report in

The Wall Street Journal

that

USA Networks

(USAI) - Get Pacer American Energy Independence ETF Report

will abandon its bid for

Lycos

(LCOS)

. Several major Lycos shareholders had been critical of the deal.

"We're looking at a slight down day in the broader market, and a slight up day in the Internet stocks," said Dan Mathisson, head stock trader at

D.E. Shaw Securities

. "Lycos is going to be up nicely."

At 9 a.m. EDT, the

S&P 500

futures were off 2.5, about 2 points below fair value. The 30-year Treasury was down 4/32 to 91 28/32, lifting the yield to 5.83%.

U.S. markets will be keeping a close eye on any developments following the

NATO

bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade. The Chinese press continues to characterize the incident as a wanton attack: The

China Daily

called the mishap an example of the "barbaric acts of U.S.-led NATO."

But while the bombing threatens both the prospects for a U.N.-brokered peace in Kosovo (

Xinhua

-- the official Chinese news agency -- quoted Chinese President

Jiang Zemin

as telling

Boris Yeltsin

that it's "impossible for the U.N. Security Council to discuss any plan to solve the problem") and China's entrance into the

World Trade Organization

, it looks as though any effect on markets will be, at this point, limited.

This, at least, is the impression one gets from the action in Hong Kong, where the news that HSBC Holdings will acquire Republic New York and Safra Republic was enough to lift the market despite the trouble in China. The

Hang Seng

added 165.77, or 1.3%, to 13,163.20.

More rumblings from the government on the possibility of a new round of stimulus helped Tokyo stocks, but late-day selling limited the gains. The

Nikkei

added 30.49 to 16,977.01.

Taichi Sakaiya

, the head of the

Economic Planning Agency

, said Sunday said that an extra budget was a possibility. Over the past week, the

Liberal Democratic Party's

secretary general,

Yoshiro Mori