NEW YORK (CNN/Money) -
The $35 billion merger agreement of Sprint and Nextel could give a lift to U.S. stocks at Wednesday's open, but concerns about higher oil prices may hold down any gains.
U.S. stock futures were mixed early Wednesday, having bounced up after the merger was announced. Both the Nasdaq and S&P 500 futures pointed to a slightly higher open in relation to fair value.
Wireless phone providers Sprint (Research) and Nextel (Research) announced a merger that will create a company with nearly 40 million subscribers. The Wall Street Journal reports that the agreement would forrce any rival bidders to pay a $1 billion fee if the deal broke up.
Verizon Communications (Research), the nation's largest phone company, was reported to be weighing a bid for Sprint, but its wireless partner Vodafone Group (Research) denied Tuesday it would make such a bid. Verizon Wireless is the nation's No. 2 wireless provider.
Oil moved higher early Wednesday, ahead of the weekly report on U.S. fuel inventories. In addition, Yukos, Russia's No. 2 oil company, filed for bankruptcy protection in the United States U.S. crude futures were up 41 cents to $42.23 a barrel in electronic trading, while Brent oil futures gained 45 cents to $39.70 a barrel in London.
Major Asian markets closed higher Wednesday after a closely watched Japanese business survey showed plans for increased capital spending. European markets were mixed in early trading.
U.S. markets closed higher following the Federal Reserve's decision Tuesday afternoon to raise interest rates for the fifth time this year.
Bond prices rose in early trading, pushing the yield on the 10-year treasury down to 4.11 percent from 4.12 percent, near where it was late Tuesday following the Fed hike. The dollar lost ground on the euro and the yen, spurring gold prices higher.
In corporate news, the New York Times reported that Time Warner (Research), the parent company of CNN/Money, could announce as soon as Wednesday settlements with the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission completing their probes into accounting practices at its America Online unit. The Times reports that it'll pay between $500 million to $600 million to settle the criminal and civil probes.
The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that a widely reported $24 billion deal that could be reached by Johnson and Johnson (Research) to acquire medical devices maker Guidant (Research) is expected to face tough scrutiny from federal antitrust regulators. The paper said the investigators are likely to look not just at existing markets, where the two companies have relatively little overlap, but also at products still in the pipeline.
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