World Summary: GLOBAL MARKETS SURGE; HOPES ON FIXING EUROPE Unit Price: Bid: Ask:
22 Oct 2011 08:11:00
Sydney - Saturday - October 22: (RWE Aust Business News) - Global investors showed the best form for weeks as buyers came out of the woodwork on the back of analysts pinning their hopes on the solution to the debt crisis by the second meeting scheduled for Wednesday.
European traders threw caution to the winds and jumped into the German market, lifting Frankfurt 3.5 per cent or 204 points.
The London Footsie jumped 104 points, Paris registered 87 and Zurich ran up 96.
Wall Street was volatile on different viewpoints about Europe emerging with monotonous regularity on solutions.
The Dow kicked off the session strongly, then seemed to take a breather and finally bolted towards the close, registering a 267 points gain or 2.31%.
Stocks rose following another batch of corporate earnings and ahead of this weekend's European Union summit on the sovereign-debt crisis.
The gains gave the Dow on pace for its fourth straight weekly gain, marking its longest winning streak since January.
The measure is up more than 1% this year.
The Standard & Poor's 500-stock index advanced 23 points, or 1.8%, to 1238, as consumer-discretionary, material and financial stocks notched the biggest gains.
Each of the index's 10 sectors rose.
The index is on pace for its third consecutive week of gains, its longest streak since February 18.
In technologies, the Nasdaq Composite advanced 39 or 1.29% while the 100 index improved 30 to 1.29%
All sharemarkets are hoping some solutions from this weekend's European Union summit will lead to a plan to combat the region's debt crisis.
"While we won't get a definitive response from the Europeans this weekend on how best to deal next with their debt crisis, officials are still holding out hope that just a few extra days will complete the job," Peter Boockvar, an equity strategist at Miller Tabak & Co declared.
McDonald's helped push the Dow higher, rising 2.5%. The fast-food company's third-quarter earnings rose as sales growth made up for the food-cost inflation it faces world-wide.
Travelers jumped 4% and American Express gained 3.5% to pace the Dow's gains.
General Electric led on the downside, falling 2.8% after reporting quarterly results. GE Chief Executive Jeff Immelt called the company's third-quarter industrial-profit margin "a low for the year" and vowed that the figure will rise in the fourth quarter and next year.
In corporate news, Microsoft edged down 0.1% after the software company reported higher third-quarter earnings that matched expectations, although profits in the Windows and Windows Live division declined.
Investors remain fixated on how European leaders will combat the debt crisis that has spread to many regions across the euro zone. Euro-zone finance ministers approved the latest disbursement of a loan payment for Greece.
Yesterday's Asian Pacific markets were mixed and subdued with the best performer South Korea's Kospi up 1.84% followed by Singapore on plus 0.68%.
In contrast, the losers failed to register a full percentage point with India's Sensex index down 0.89% and China's Shanghai off 0.60% after Australia's ASX200 slipped 0.7%.
Gold futures rose, while crude-oil prices climbed above $87 a barrel.
The US dollar lost ground against the euro and the yen and the Aussie gained about 60 poits to $US1.0334 overnight in New York.
WALL STREET... The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 267.01 points or 2.31% to 11,808.80 and the S&P 500 index gained 22.86 points or 1.88% to 1238.25. The Nasdaq Composite index improved 38.84 or 1.49% points to 2637.46 and the Nasdaq 100 put on 29.64 or 1.29% to 2335.93. In Treasuries, the 10-year note fell 7/32 to 99 15/32 while the yield rose 0.025 points to 2.19pc. The 30-year bond yield rose 0.037 points to 3.21pc and the two-year note yield fell 0.004 points to 0.26pc.
US DOLLAR... is changing hands at 76.14 yen (pre 76.82), against the euro it is $US1.3870 (pre 1.3750) against sterling $US1.5948 (pre 1.5771) and against the Swiss franc $US1.1324 (pre 1.1075).
AUSTRALIAN DOLLAR... is changing hands at $US1.0364 compared with $US1.0233 on yesterday's close. Offshore the Aussie posted a high of $US1.0361 and low of $US1.0205. Against the yen it is at 78.68 (pre 78.53) at 74.52 euro cents (pre 74.35) and 64.80 British pence (pre 64.82).
EUROPEAN MARKETS... London's FTSE 100 climbed 103.97 to 5,488.65, Paris's CAC-40 jumped 87.27 to 3,171.34, Frankfurt's DAX jumped 204.48 to 5,970.96, Zurich climbed 95.86 to 5,753.52, and Oslo jumped 13.76 to 429.86. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index advanced 0.2 per cent to 238.93 this week, with energy, personal goods and retail industries gaining the most. The gauge trimmed its decline from this year's high on Feb. 17 to 18 percent. The Stoxx 600 is trading at about 10 times the estimated earnings of its constituent companies, near the lowest valuation since March 2009. The National benchmark indexes rose in nine of the 18 western European markets.
COMEX METALS... spot gold is currently $1635.10 oz. The Oct gold contract rose $23.20 to $1635.10 oz, the Dec contract gained $23.20 to $1636 oz. Oct silver climbed 91c to $31.193 oz. Oct platinum advanced $16.80 to $1503.70 oz and Oct copper rose 16.45c to 321.9c lb.
LONDON METAL EXCHANGE... official cash ask prices were: copper $7062 tonne (pre $6916.50), tin $21,760 (pre $21,350), lead $1841 (pre $1791.50), zinc $1703(pre $1750), aluminium $2110 (pre $2121.50) and nickel $18,675 (pre $18,160).
The 3-month ask prices were copper $7085 (pre $6930), tin $21,900 (pre $21,305), lead $1868 (pre $1832), zinc $1811 (pre $1770), aluminium $2148 (pre $2137 and nickel $18,730 (pre $18,225).
OIL... (still to settle) Dec crude rose $1.52 to $87.54 a barrel, with a high of $88.8954 and a low of $84.10. The Jan contract gained $1.48 to $87.65 a barrel with a high of $88.99 and low of $86.10. Brent ICE for Dec rose $0.38 to $110.15 a barrel with a high of $111.88 and a low of $109.25.
