how wall street will kick off the day. the dow opens at 12,760 after gaining 75 points yesterday. the s&p 500 added ten points. the nasdaq rose 28. taking a look at overseas trading this morning, in tokyo, the nikkei was up 45 points but in hong kong the hang seng dropped 44. after last week s giant commodities selloff, chinesed wall street s fears about global growth tuesday while paving the way for more american business. china not only posting an april trade surplus nearly four times better than expected, it agreed to open up its government contracts to more u.s. companies and let u.s. banks sell mutual funds there. microsoft s mega deal to buy skype for $8.5 billion helped drive trade. but not microsoft itself. shares fell on skepticism the price was too high. on the other hand, shares of ebay which owns a large stake in skype rose 2.5%. a surprise departure by the ceo
facebook and google to buy the web video conferencing service skype in its biggest deal ever for $8.5 billion. monday the very same companies hobbled by last week s massive commodities selloff rode higher thanks to a rebound in oil and materials. silver rose climbing back from its worst weekly drop since at least 1975. energy stocks also led gains as oil once again moved above $100 a barrel. in financials, heavily traded citigroup dragged stocks falling over 2% after the company s one for ten reverse stock split. h&r block tumbled 7% after reports a group will try to force the company s defunct subprime lending unit to buy back billions in soured home loans. dollar thrifty soared 13% after hertz, battling with rival avis, offered to buy the company for more than $2.2 billion. european markets fell on worries about greece after standard and