European Markets Stabilize on Promise of Strong Opening by Nasdaq
DAVID HAFFENREFFER, CNN ANCHOR: As it stands right now, we do have the European stock markets in a bit of a mixed picture right now. Our Todd Benjamin is standing by in our London bureau with more. Good morning, Todd.</s>TODD BENJAMIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Dave. They are mixed, but they've really stabilized a lot, and I think they're also looking towards that stronger open for the Nasdaq. And I think that's definitely cheering the markets right now. The FTSE is up a half of a percent. The DAX in Frankfurt, the last time we talked it was down, now it's turned into positive territory. It's up a third of a percent. Paris is off a third of a percent, it had been now much more before. And Zurich has been the odd one out all day. It remains up at just over a half percent. But again, it does not have any heavy weighting in technology, it's financials, pharmaceuticals, things like that. Some of the stocks, though, still getting hammered in that tech sector: ASM Lithography, which trades in U.S., it's down 6 1/2 percent. Reuters, a media group, is off 6 percent. But get this, STMicroelectronics, the French chip maker that has been a Wall Street darling, it's up nearly 1 percent, and Nokia's off just a half percent. So things are stabilizing. Among some the big winners, it's in those defensive groups such as foods: Unilever, for instance, is up four percent. BP Amoco is up about 6 percent. And British American Tobacco, which owns a Brown & Williamson, it's up just over 10 percent. I do want to mention oil. Oil is up 59 cents today at $25.22. Of course, that's Brent trading here in London. Back to you.</s>HAFFENREFFER: And Todd, we are seeing the European markets improve, as we are seeing, also, S&P; futures and Nasdaq futures improving as the morning is progressing as well. Search CNN.com CNNSI.com CNNmoney.com The Web