It cited government sources
It cited government sources.(Writing by Madeline Chambers; editing by John Stonestreet) Stocks Bonds Global Markets Russia. German newspaper the Rheinische Post reported that aconsortium Austrian-Canadian auto parts supplier Magna (MGa.TO)and Russian automaker Gaz have also shown an interest in takinga stake in Opel. But private equity firms are giving Opel the cold shoulder,leaving sovereign wealth funds from the Gulf or Asia as the mostinterested private investors, managers at buyout firms have toldReuters [ID:nLM958200]. GM Chief Executive Fritz Henderson said last week thecarmaker had "reached out" to more than six potential buyers,many of whom were financial investors. GM must sell a significant stake in Opel to convince Germanpoliticians to use taxpayers' money for 3.3 billion euros ($4.30billion) in loan guarantees.
Progress in talks with potential Opel investors was one ofthe main reasons for the more positive attitude, the paper said.Rising unit sales at the carmaker were also helping. Stocks | Bonds | Global Markets | Russia "It is looking a lot better than it did four weeks ago,"top-selling German daily Bild quoted a source in the governingcoalition as saying. BERLIN, April 23 (Reuters) - Willingness is growing withinGerman Chancellor Angela Merkel's government to grant GeneralMotors' GM.N struggling Opel unit a state guarantee if aprivate investor is found, a newspaper reported on Thursday. (Reporting by Atul Prakash; Editing by Greg Mahlich) Stocks European Markets Global Markets France Japan.
Across Europe, the FTSE 100 index, Germany's DAX andFrance's CAC 40 were down between 0.1 and 0.6 percent. dollar as it warnedongoing currency losses could hit its full-year results.[ID:nLN2232] Among miners, Lonmin Plc (LMI.L), the world's third-biggestplatinum producer, rose more than 5 percent after it posted a 30percent rise in second-quarter platinum sales, helped byprocessing a backlog, and completed a $575 million debtrefinancing package. Swiss drugmaker Novartis AG (NOVN.VX) was up 4 percent afterit reported a better than expected first-quarter net profit,down 14 percent due to a stronger U.S. "If the global economic downswing continues to worsen, weanticipate further pressure on auto ratings in 2009," Standard &Poor's says in a report. BMW (BMWG.DE), Porsche (PSHG_p.DE), Volkswagen AG (VOWG.DE)and Peugeot (PEUP.PA) were down 1.3-3 percent. IN REVERSE GEAR Automakers also came under pressure after Japanese carmakerToyota Motor Corp's (7203.T) group-wide sales fell 27 percent inthe first quarter.
[ID:nN22110724]Morgan Stanley (MS.N) on Wednesday posted a bigger thanexpectedquarterly loss and slashed its dividend. "Only history will tell us if the doom-mongers are correctbut what can't be denied is that we haven't seen a wide-rangingbout of optimism spread across the investing public." A spokeswoman for General Motors GM.N said on Wednesdaythe automaker is unlikely to make a $1 billion debt payment dueJune 1 because it expects to be in the process of restructuringits debt through a voluntary exchange or bankruptcy court bythat point. Whilst we could gain some optimismfrom Credit Suisse's numbers, underlying concerns about the GMsituation, and mixed numbers from Morgan Stanley will simply notdisappear," said Chris Hossain, senior sales manager at ODLSecurities Ltd in a note. But Natixis (CNAT.PA) gained 0.7 percent, Dexia(DEXI.BR) rose 1.3 percent and UniCredit (CRDI.MI) was up 3percent "It's another mixed bag. HSBC (HSBA.L) fell 0.5 percent,Barclays (BARC.L) was down 0.8 percent and UBS (UBSN.VX) dropped1.8 percent. Credit Suisse (CSGN.VX), however, rose 7.3 percent afterSwitzerland's second-largest bank posted a net profit of 2billion Swiss francs ($1.71 billion) for the first quarter,twice as much as expected by analysts, and said it remainedoptimistic about its prospects [ID:nLM494747] Other banks were mixed. ABB fell 3.5 percent after giving a cautious outlook andmissing forecasts with a 35 percent drop in first-quarter profitas customers hesitated about investing in new equipment due tothe economic downturn.
At 0837 GMT, the FTSEurofirst 300 index of top Europeanshares was down 0.2 percent at 793.68 points after falling aslow as 787.56 points It rose 1 percent in the previous session. * FTSEurofirst 300 falls 0.2 percent Stocks | European Markets | Global Markets | France | Japan * ABB slips on cautious market outlook * Credit Suisse jumps after surprising results * For up-to-the-minute market news, click on [STXNEWS/EU] By Atul Prakash LONDON, April 23 (Reuters) - European shares drifted lowerin early trade on Thursday, weighed by poor results from Swissengineering group ABB (ABBN.VX), though Credit Suisse (CSGN.VX)jumped after the size of its first-quarter profit surprisedinvestors. Game seven will be on Monday. Will the break benefit the young Hornets or the world champion Spurs? The break will benefit the Hornets more because that gives David West, who has a sore back, some more time to heal.The Spurs, who were once down two games, look to win on the road for the first time this series.What a better time to try and get their first road win.It's a win or go home for both teams. Who will win? Who will go home?I predict the Spurs will kill the Hornets post-season dreams with a four point win.GO SPURS GO. The San Antonio Spurs pulled off a big win Thursday night to force game seven in New Orleans. The Spurs our out to REPEAT as world champions and the Hornets are on a mission to take out the defending world champions. andthe power station would have a capacity of around 870 megawatts(MW) (Editing by Greg Mahlich). [ID:nLM945222] DONG Energy said in a statement on Thursday the otherpartner in the project was power and gas provider Eneco B.V. The Danish state-controlled energy and utility group hadtold Reuters on Wednesday it had bought half of the gas-firedpower station project Enecogen in Rotterdam.