10:00PM Frankfurt, 4:00PM New York, 8:00AM Sydney– U.S. stocks edged higher despite a larger than expected loss at Lehman Brothers. An index of pending home sales rose lifting market expectations. European markets closed mixed but Asian markets closed lower. Oil dropped 3%.

Global Markets Update

U.S. stocks edged higher in the morning despite a large loss from Lehman Brothers. Lehman also raised $6 billion through common and preferred stocks offering at a discount to its closing price on Friday. CIT, received $3 billion in cash investment from Goldman Sachs. Tech stocks fell but resource and energy stocks rose in New York. Asian markets closed lower and European markets inched lower.

European markets edged lower in the region but market indexes in Germany and France closed higher. German export in April rose 14% and imports increased 11.7% in month as the robust demand from the Middle East and rising crude oil prices. Among the DAX 30 index stocks, Volkswagen led the gainers with a rise of 2.6% and MAN led the decliners with a fall of 4% on a downgrade from a broker.

UK stocks fell after the release of May producer price index. The index in May surged 8.9% after rising 7.6% in April. Rising input costs forced several manufacturers to raise prices in the domestic market. In addition a private report on home prices indicated that home owners may have to wait till the year 2017 before home prices will recover in the UK. Of the FTSE 100 index stocks, 71 declined and 29 increased.

Stocks in Japan and Asia fell tracking the losses in Friday trading in the U.S. Coincidence Index, a measure of current economic activity in Japan fell but an index of leading indicators showed a gain. Economy in Japan has been facing rising food and energy prices and stagnant wages. Resona Holdings led decliners in the Nikkei 225 index shares with a fall of 5.2% followed by losses of 5% in JFE Holdings and in Nomura Holdings, in Tokyo Electron of 4.8%, and Sumitomo Heavy Industries of 4.6%.

Stocks in India fell on a sharp rise in crude oil prices. Israel threatened to attack Iran and lifting a specter of crude oil price as high as $200 a barrel in the near future. India imports nearly 70% of its crude oil needs and rising prices only stoke inflation that is running at a four-year high. Reliance Communication and the South African wireless telecom, MTN are expected to announce swap ratio of stocks.

Safaricom, the largest mobile telecom network operator in Kenya jumped 47% on its first day of trading after investors oversubscribed the offering by five times. The offering raised $800 million and the stock closed at 7.65 shillings and rose as high as 8 shillings on 416 million shares. The Kenyan government sold 25% stake in the company or 10 billion shares at a price of 5.175 shilling per share. Vodafone Kenya Limited owns 40% of the company and Government of Kenya controls 35% of the company. The mobile telecom operator had 10 million subscribers at the end of March 2008 and added 4.2 million subscribers in the last fiscal year ending in March of 2008. The average revenue per subscriber fell 23% to 616 shillings.

Markets in China, Hong Kong and Australia were closed today.

European Markets indexes

In London FTSE 100 Index closed lower 29.20 or 0.49% to 5,877.60, in Paris CAC 40 Index increased 4.06 or 0.08% to close at 4,799.38 and in Frankfurt DAX index higher 11.82 or 0.17% to close at 6,815.63. In Zurich trading SMI decreased 60.52 or 0.82% to close at 7,325.90.

North American Markets indexes

Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 70.51 or 0.58% to a close of 12,280.32, S&P 500 closed up 1.09 or 0.08% to 1,361.77, and Nasdaq Composite Index decreased 15.10 or 0.61% to close at 2,459.46. In Toronto TSX Composite closed down 3.61 or 0.02% to 14,965.94.

Of the 30 stocks in Dow Jones Industrial Average, 20 closed higher, 10 closed lower, and none was unchanged.

JP Morgan Chase led the gainers in the Dow Jones Index with a rise of 6.3% followed by gains in Bank of America of 2.95%, in Home Depot of 2.39%, in AT&T of 1.8% and in Citigroup of 1.7%. Alcoa Inc led the gainers in the Dow Jones Index with a rise of 7.3% followed by gains in McDonald’s of 4.4%, in Exxon Mobil of 2.45%, in Wal-Mart Stores of 2.3%.

Of the stocks in S&P 500 index, 227 stocks increased, 267 declined, and 6 were unchanged. Of the stocks in the index, 38 stocks fell more than 3% and 23 gained more than 3%.

WaMu Inc led the decliners in the S&P 500 index with a loss of 15% followed by losses in Ambac Financial of 12.3%, in MBIA Inc of 10.7%, in National City Corp of 9.7% and in Lehman Brothers of 9%. Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Regions Financials and Ingersoll Rand fell between 7% and 7.5%.

Alcoa led the gainers in the S&P 500 index with a rise of 7.3% followed by gains in Ensco International of 6.8%, in Southwestern Energy of 6%, in Apache Corp of 5.8% and in Peabody Energy of 4.7%.

South American Markets Indexes

Colombia led the decliners in the Latin American markets with a fall of 1.3% followed by decreases in Brazil and Argentina of 0.8%, in Mexico of 0.70%, in Venezuela of 0.56% in Peru of 0.52% and in Mexico of 1.8% and in Argentina of 0.45%. Chile the lone gainer rose 0.04%.

Asian markets