Although US equity markets are today closed for Independence Day holiday, some interesting news pertinent to Wall Street has been released.

Unidentified sources have told Bloomberg News that JPMorgan Chase has hired one of Merrill Lynch’s top merger & acquisitions advisors in Japan to boost its merger advisory and equity underwriting business in the region, which is seeing many large companies sell non-profitable technology assets in order to refocus on their main business. The new recruit, Hideki Somemiya is said to be joining JPMorgan next week and has an excellent track record. Perhaps this development will bode well for JPMorgan’s share price next week.

Also in US banking news, it has emerged that seven US regional banks (six in Illinois and one in Texas), with total assets worth $1.49 billion and deposits of $1.34 billion, were seized by regulators. Such developments continue to remind us that there are still risks present in the market, despite recent signs of stabilisation. At the same time, however, it provides stronger US banks the opportunity to gain a share in the market.

There is also a rumour that the US Treasury Department is picking up to ten money managers to participate in its Public-Private Investment Program, in which the government and private sectors together buy distressed mortgage securities from banks on a 50/50 basis. Sources have now told Bloomberg News that the program will commence with only $20 billion in public and private money, which is substantially less than the $100 billion originally mentioned back in March when the program was first introduced. Perhaps the US government doesn’t perceive the issue as being as critical as anymore.

In the meantime, an official report released by the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) has revealed that global semiconductor sales rose 5.4% or $16.5 billion in May. The monthly rebound reflects a pick up in demand for technology which use chips, such as mobile phones and computers. Chip sales were still substantially lower on the year, however, down 23.2% from May 2008. Back home, sentiment on the FTSE had picked up; by 3:30pm (London time), the FTSE 100 was trading up by 16.82 points (+0.40%) to 4251.09, while the broader FTSE 250 was 7.86 points (+0.11%) above its previous close at 7381.87.

Almost every sector on the FTSE 100 had moved up from levels seen earlier this morning, with the exception of resource shares, which were among the worst performers dragging on the blue-chip index - personally, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a correction next week, when US equity markets open.

With no cue from Wall Street, London-listed equities may have also been more inclined to move on the back of analyst recommendations (a full list of broker ratings can be found on our website under the economic indicators section).

Most miners remained in negative territory this afternoon, with Fresnillo and Kazakhmys the worst performers in the sector, down by 1.3% to 507.5p and 1.6% to 635.5p, respectively. Rio Tinto, meanwhile, which was trading more than 4% lower this morning, pared earlier losses and managed climb 0.4% to 2043p.

Banks continued to add to the morning’s gains, with Barclays almost 3% higher at 297.4p and Lloyds Banking Group up 3.2% to 68.02p. RBS advanced 2.3% to 38.76p and HSBC gained almost 2% to 510.2p this afternoon.

Elsewhere, crude oil futures traded sharply lower, with August Brent 0.9% lower at $66.08 a barrel, and August WTI sliding 0.7% to $66.23 a barrel this afternoon. It is also worth noting that some unexpected news has been released about another rogue trader, who is said to have contributed to a spike in crude oil prices.

By Anthony Grech, Research Analyst, IG Index.

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