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US pre-open: Markets seen with modest gains

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Date: Friday 02 May 2008

LONDON (ShareCast) - US markets are expected to continue on from yesterday's stellar performance with modest gains expected.

In economic news, the monthly jobs report is due out in April with economists expecting employers to cut 75,000 jobs. The unemployment rate is expected to be 5.2% from 5.1% in March.

Government reading on factory orders for March is also due out with economists forecast a 0.2% gain after a 1.3% drop in February.

The Dow Jones is expected to start up 22 points to 13,023 with the Nasdaq seen rising 2 points to 1986. The S&P 500 is expected to start up 2 points.

In company news, the shares of Sun Microsystems are seen lower after the software maker reported an unexpected loss for the third quarter, which it said was due to poor sales to US consumer-oriented companies.

Software giant Microsoft is to make an announcement about its pursuit of internet portal Yahoo in “very short order”, according to the web site Silicon Alley Insider.

Microsoft’s chief executive Steve Ballmer indicated to Microsoft employees at a company meeting on Thursday that it was close to making a decision on its next step in its pursuit of Yahoo!