wall street buckles up, page-5

early world market summary (WS) Early World Summary: GLOBAL MARKETS STALL DUE TO HOLIDAYS
RWE News
7:32:020 30/05/2006
Sydney - Tuesday - May 30: (RWE Aust Business News)- Global
financial markets have come to a standstill overnight with North America
closed for Memorial Day holiday and London traders taking a long weekend
break to include bank holiday.
There has been subdued trading on the continent with the trend
mixed and losses moderate.
Paris fell 30 points, Frankfurt 33 and Zurich up 9.
On the smaller exchanges Amsterdam and Madrid barely moved,
Belgium dipped 10, Milan up 14 and Oslo up 10.
Bunds pared the bulk of their am losses as intraday
players squared up in very thin markets.
The early sell-off was triggered by a very strong German Gfk
survey and hawkish, although predictable ECB comments over the weekend.
Elsewhere, it was a grind all-day with FX, stocks while gold
movements minimal.
In European markets interest rates continued worry traders
although steel stocks again rose on hopes of further consolidation.
Corus was up 3 percent in Amsterdam after takeover speculation in
the steel industry was reinforced by news Russian billionaire Roman
Abramovich is looking to buy a stake in London-listed Russian steelmaker
Evraz.
Arcelor gained 4 percent after reports it plans to merge with
Russia's Severstal to block a hostile bid from Mittal Steel which
gained 5 percent.
Mittal advisers scrambled to mount a resistance by Arcelor
shareholders after the rival European steelmaker agreed to a $16.54
billion merger with Russia's Severstal.
At the end of the day the FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European
shares closed 0.14 percent weaker at 1,322.45 points.
Volumes were just a fraction of the usual turnover.Friday.
On the economic scene, the GfK research group said German
consumer sentiment is set to jump to its highest for nearly five years in
June, supported by rising optimism on the economy which also heightens
fears the European Central Bank might raise interest rates further.
AMD announced plans to invest $2.5 billion over the next three
years to expand chip production at its factories in Dresden, Germany.
Meanwhile traders are waiting to hear what the Fed's FOMC will
say on Wednesday after the release of the minutes of its last meeting.
Zurich was supported by Roche which saw its shares advance on the
back of its Herceptin cancer drug which increased the time some
breast-cancer patients live without the cancer progressing when used in
combination with hormonal therapy.
Nexity shot ahead after the media reported that French
construction and transport concessions group Vinci was considering a
tie-up with the property group.
Vinci shares fell sharpy on the news.
And French engineering group Alstom added 5 percent but the
volume of shares traded was low.
A string of disasters pushed financial markets into the
background at the beginning of the week.
A series of bombings killed at least 33 people in Iraq in the
worst wave of violence in the city in days. Two British soldiers and two
CBS News crewmen were killed in separate attacks.
Emergency aid began arriving in Indonesian areas devastated by
the 6.3-magnitude earthquake, as the death toll rose to 5,137. But
officials said supplies weren't being delivered fast enough.
And violence continued in the East Timor capital, but eased from
the weekend, as the president urged warring factions to stop fighting.
The ex-soldiers whose rebellion triggered the unrest also offered to join
peace talks.
A traffic accident involving US troops sparked rioting in Kabul.
At least five people were killed and 60 injured.
In currency markets where global desks are never closed, the US
dollar has been a touch weaker while the Aussie has crept higher to
US75.84c, up about 3 points on last night's local close.


WALL STREET ... closed.

US DOLLAR ... has been mostly weaker against major currencies,
trading at 112.47 yen from around 112.67 previously in New York. The euro
is $US1.2753 against 1.2736 while sterling is $US1.8602 compared with
1.8594 previously. The US dollar on the Swiss franc is a touch lower at
1.2248 against 1.2258.

AUSTRALIAN DOLLAR ... is a touch firmer on the greenback. The
dollar is currently US75.83c in New York trading. This compared with
yesterday's local close of US75.81c. Overnight, it has traded as high as
US75.94c and as low as US75.80c. The Aussie is worth 85.29 yen (pre
85.40), 0.5949 euros (pre 0.5941) and 40.77 pence on sterling (pre
40.64).


EUROPEAN SHAREMARKETS ... London is closed for bank holiday.
At the close, the Paris CAC-40 fell 29.77 points to 5015.32 while
the Frankfurt DAX 30 lost 33.34 82.3 to 5755.02 and Zurich edged up 9 to
7688.15. In other markets Amsterdam slipped less than half a point,
Brussels shed 10, Madrid General rose 1 point , while Milan put on 14 and
Oslo ended another 10 higher.

METALS ...closed in US and the UK.

Meanwhile China's imports and exports of metals mostly slowed in
April, with refined copper imports for the month falling 33.2 percent
from a year earlier to 71,106 tonnes, official customs figures
disclosed.
Refined copper imports in the first four months of the year fell
36.3 percent to 276,944 tonnes, as high international prices and expanded
domestic smelter capacity deterred importers.
"The demand has not increased this month.
"Fabricating plants' purchases are getting smaller and smaller,"
a merchant said of the amount per order by the plants.
World copper prices have risen 87 percent this year, costing
around $8,200 a tonne on Monday.
Copper end-users such as air-conditioner makers were struggling
to cope with record-high prices of copper because manufacturing
overcapacity prevented them from raising prices, industry officials said.
China exported 82,785 tonnes of primary aluminium in April, down
23.3 percent from a year earlier, while aluminium exports for the first
four months also fell, by 37 percent to 280,634 tonnes.
But traders said strong world prices for aluminium had prompted
Chinese smelters and merchants to export more metal this month.
The benchmark three-month aluminium contract on the London Metal Exchange
hit a record high of $3,310 a tonne on May 11.
Traders estimated Chinese aluminium exports would surpass 100,000 tonnes
in May.
Much of the exports had been delivered into the LME warehouses
because demand for physical metal had stayed weak in Asia due to
high prices.
China's imports of alumina, the main raw material for aluminium,
has remained low this month because of high prices and rising output in
the country, said aluminium smelter officials.

OIL markets ... closed.

The CRB index closed.
ENDS
!END