Stocks have been in an uncertain up and down mode in recent days, unable to sustain any persistent trend. This morning’s pre-open sentiment shows more of the same in today’s session, with a mixed economic reading and a blockbuster food industry deal providing the backdrop.

On the macro front, expectations of a delayed Fed action and positive-looking data out of Europe have helped strengthen the common currency against the U.S. dollar in recent days. After falling to a multi-year low of close to $1.05 a few days back, the common currency traded $1.095 in today’s European trading session. There is likely some more weakness for the U.S. dollar in the coming days, but the long-term trend still appears to be towards parity. After all, the U.S. economic expansion is firmly in place, notwithstanding this morning’s soft Durable Goods report.

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Importantly, the Fed is on track to start ‘normalizing’ monetary policy and the European Central Bank is in the midst of a big QE program of its own. The combined effect of these factors more than offset the contribution from moderately positive Euro-Zone data in recent days. Bottom line — the U.S. dollar’s recent pullback vs. the common currency is just a short-term blip, with the primary strengthening trend still firmly in place.

In corporate news, Kraft shares are up more than 30% in the pre-open following the announcement that the company is being acquired by a combination of Brazil’s 3G Capital and Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-B - Analyst Report). These two had previously come together to acquire Heinz. The combined company, to be called The Kraft Heinz Company, will be owned 49% by existing Kraft shareholders, who will get one share each of the new company and a cash dividend of $16.50 for each Kraft share they own. The cash component amounts to roughly 27% of Kraft’s closing price on Tuesday.