Commodities pull Wall Street up
MARKET CLOSE: After several down days, stocks on Wall Street finished higher on stronger commodiity prices.
MARKET CLOSE: After several down days, stocks on Wall Street finished higher on stronger commodiity prices.
Stocks on Wall Street moved higher as a boost in commodities prices pushed investors into shares of materials, energy and industrial companies.
At the close (8am NZ time), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 38.45 points, or 0.3%, to 12,394.66, while the S&P 500 index gained 0.3% to 132.48 and the Nasdaq Composite added 0.55% to 2761.38.
Leading the way were DuPont, Caterpillar and Exxon Mobil, up 1.7%, 1.5% and 1.2%, respectively. The gains came as gold, copper and silver all rose. Crude-oil prices moved back above $US101 a barrel.
Other markets: Europe rebounds, Asia mainly higher
European stocks closed slightly higher after Fitch Ratings said it didn't foresee any rating action on German banks as a result of their exposure to Greece.
Banking shares jumped and the Stoxx Europe 600 index ended up 0.7% at 277.37. Commerzbank, which Fitch said has the biggest euro exposure to Greece among commercial banks, surged 6.1%.
The UK's FTSE 100 nudged up 0.2% to 5870.14, Germany's DAX increased 0.3% to 7170.94 and France's CAC-40 added 0.3% to 3928.99.
Chinese shares fell for a fifth session, dragged down by continued worries about slowing economic growth and rising inflationary pressure. The Shanghai Composite dropped 0.9% to 2741.74, its lowest close since January 26.
Other Asian markets fell as well; Japan's Nikkei Stock Average fell 0.6% to 9422.88, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 gave up 1% to 4584.7, Korea's Kospi fell 1.3% to 2035.87 and India's Sensex shed 0.9% to 17,847.24.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng index barely escaped the trend, ending 0.1% higher at 22,747.28.
Commodities: Oil, gold rise
Crude oil futures rebounded after a government report showed a rise in US gasoline stockpiles and increasing production activity by refineries.
Light, sweet crude for July delivery recently traded 59USc higher at $US100.18 a barrel in New York. Brent crude on the ICE futures exchange traded $US1.55 higher at $US114.08 a barrel.
Gold futures shook off some weakness as the US dollar came off its highs. The contract for June delivery rose $US4.40, or 0.3%, to $US1527.60 an ounce in New York.
Currencies: Euro rises from lows
The euro pared losses against the US dollar to $US1.41 after one clearing house raised its margin requirement on Irish debt.
LCH.Clearnet Group said it raised its margin requirements for Irish government bonds to 65% from 55% in response to the yield differential of 10-year Irish government debt against an AAA benchmark.
The euro fell to $US1.4098 from $US1.4102 late on Tuesday, after touching an intraday high of $US1.4118.
The euro was at ¥115.52 from ¥115.55, while the dollar traded at ¥81.98 from ¥81.92.
The euro hit record lows against the Swiss franc below 1.23, while the dollar weakened to 0.8723 compared with 0.8793.