LONDON (ShareCast) - The US market gets off to a firm start, buoyed by Microsoft’s $44.6bn bid for Yahoo!.

Microsoft is offering $31 a share in cash for Yahoo!, the web's oldest directory. A share alternative of 0.9509 Microsoft shares per Yahoo! share is being made available. The deal has been designed so that no more than half of the final purchase price will be paid in cash.

The bid helped perk up a market that otherwise would have fretted more about a surprise 17,000 fall in non-farm employment in January; the market had been expecting a rise of 50,000 or more.

The Dow-Jones has moved up 57 to 12,708 and the S&P Composite is up 11 at 1,389. The tech-heavy NASDAQ Composite is 14 points to the good at 2,404.

Yahoo! is top of the risers among blue-chips while, coincidentally, Google occupies the cellar position after the company’s fourth quarter profits came in below analysts’ estimates. Microsoft, meanwhile, is marked lower after its latest bid to achieve a dominant position in the search engine market.

Exxon is barely changed after announcing the largest quarterly and annual profit in the history of the US stock market.

Alcoa tends firmer after joining with Chinese mining company Chinalco to take a 12% stake in Rio Tinto, the mining company being stalked by BHP Billiton. Chinalco bought its stake though a bid vehicle, Shining Prospect, with Alcoa committing $1.2bn to its funding through a convertible issue.

Motorola has advanced strongly after revealing it is considering selling off its mobile phone unit.

• News Channel