U.S. stock index futures were up with about 40 minutes before markets open,

Immelt upbeat
David Berman
RTGAM


After back-to-back weekly losses, investors do not appear to have lost faith in the stock market rebound that began in early March. On Monday morning, most major global indexes were higher.

U.S. stock index futures were up with about 40 minutes before markets open, suggesting that stocks will rise at the start of trading. Futures for the Dow Jones industrial average were up 33 points. Futures for the broader S&P 500 were up 3 points.

In Europe, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 was up 0.9 per cent and Germany's DAX index was up 1.5 per cent in afternoon trading. In Asia, Japan's Nikkei 225 fell 1 per cent in overnight trading.

The gains come on a light news day, and the start of a shortened week in North America. On Wednesday, the Canadian market will close for Canada Day celebrations. Although the U.S. Independence Day falls on Saturday, markets will close on Friday for a long weekend holiday.

Jeffey Immelt, chief executive of General Electric, may have lost some credibility when he cut GE's dividend earlier this year after insisting it was safe -- but investors are giving his forecasting skills another chance: In a speech at the London School of Economics, Mr. Immelt said that the worst of the economic crisis has passed and he believes growth will resume in 2010.

"I would say we have almost a fully functioning capital market," he said, according to Bloomberg News.

Copyright 2001 The Globe and Mail