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
DOW Price at posting:
0.0¢ Sentiment: None Disclosure: Held