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US midday: Leading shares mixed

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Date: Friday 02 May 2008

LONDON (ShareCast) - The optimism engendered by better than feared US jobs data has dissipated and leading shares are now mixed.

While the Dow Jones 30 is 13 points higher and the S&P 500 is 1 point better at 1,410, the tech-heavy NASDAQ Composite is down 11 at 2,469, weighed down by the fall-out from Sun Microsystems’ unexpected loss for the third quarter, which it said was due to poor sales to US consumer-oriented companies.

Online recruitment firm Monster received a lift from the US non-farm payroll figures which fell by a smaller amount than expected in April, while the unemployment rate unexpectedly headed lower.

Financial stocks are doing well after the Federal Reserve enlarged its cash-loan auctions for banks by 50% to $75bn each to rejuvenate its four-month old programme designed to return liquidity to markets.

Internet portal Yahoo! is also on the up on rumours that Microsoft is preparing to launch a higher bid pitched directly to shareholders.

The country’s second biggest energy company, Chevron, edges higher after reporting its largest ever first quarter profit. Chevron reported a net income of $5.17bn, or $2.48 a share, for the first three months of 2008, compared with $4.72bn, or $2.18 a share, in the first quarter of last year. The earnings per share figures exceeded analysts’ forecasts of $2.41bn.

Sector peers Marathon Oill and Consolidated Energy fare even better as the price of oil rises for the first time in four days.