Monday, January 25, 1999

Stocks begin the week mixed as AT&T reports earnings and GE Capital goes shopping in Japan.

Author:: Thomas Lepri
Publish date:: Jan 25, 1999 9:21 AM EST

Markets

At 9 a.m. EST the

S&P 500

were up 1.7, near fair value.

European bourses generally were lower at midday.

Asian markets closed mixed, as Japan's

Nikkei 225

picked up 54.41 to close at 14,208.81, while Hong Kong's

Hang Seng

plummeted 239.02 to 9,499.50.

For more markets action and news, click

here.

Companies

General Electric

(GE) - Get Report

subsidiary and asset scavenger

GE Capital

has agreed to buy the leasing business of bankrupt

Japan Leasing

, a unit of the now-nationalized

Long-Term Credit Bank of Japan

. Separately, GE Capital settled for about $100 million a class action lawsuit alleging unfair debt collection by the company.

Eli Lilly's

(LLY) - Get Report

Prozac patent-infringement suit against competitors

Barr Laboratories

(BRL)

and

Novartis

unit

Geneva Pharmaceuticals

begins today.

Merck

(MRK) - Get Report

said Friday that it has scrapped plans to begin Phase III testing of potential blockbuster antidepressant MK-869.

For more news on companies and stocks, click

here.

Tech

AT&T

(T) - Get Report

posted fourth-quarter earnings of $1.12 a share, up 58% from last year. The company attributed the increase to cost-cutting and a booming mobile-phone services segment.

Netscape

(NSCP)

co-founder

Marc Andreessen

will be named chief technology officer of

American Online

(AOL)

, according to

The Wall Street Journal

For more tech news and commentary, click

here.

International

Swedish mobile-phone giant

Ericsson

(ERICY)

said it will cut 11,000 jobs over two years in response to slowing profit growth.

UBS AG

is downshifting. The Swiss banking behemoth said it will curtail its investment banking operations in favor of the private client and asset management segments, and cut its earnings forecast for 2002 by 10%.

Figures from Japan's

Ministry of Finance

show that country's trade surplus increased 14% in the month of December.

For more international news and commentary, click

here.