Wall St posts third monthly rise

Stocks on Wall Street have posted their third positive month in a row.

Oil prices have eased, slipping below $US97 a barrel after a recent rally, as US supplies are not affected by events in the Middle East.

At the close (10am NZ time), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 95.89 points, or 0.8%, to 12,226.34, led by rises of 2.4% for both Johnson & Johnson and Hewlett-Packard. 3M rose 1.9%. Stocks finished on a strong note after a mid-session slump.

The Nasdaq Composite rebounded from negative territory to finish marginally up at 2782.27 while the S&P 500 500 index advanced 0.6% to 1327.22, with all of its sectors in the black.

The Dow and the S&P 500 were up more than 2% each for February, while the S&P 500 also posted its biggest February point gain since 1998.

Other markets: Europe, Asia up
European stock markets pared earlier losses to move mostly higher on hopes that the political situation in North Africa and the Middle East will stabilise.

The Stoxx Europe 600 Index was recently 0.4% higher at 286.49. London's FTSE 100 Index was down 0.1% at 5994.01 but Frankfurt's DAX index was 1.2% higher at 7272.32 and the CAC-40 index in Paris rose 1.0% to 4110.35.

Most major Asian markets also ended higher, with stocks in Shanghai and Hong Kong both shrugging off a rise in Nymex crude-oil prices and Beijing's lower target for economic growth over the next five years.

Indian stocks jumped on after the nation's finance minister said the next financial year's fiscal deficit and government borrowings will be less than the market expected.

The Shanghai Composite rose 0.9% 2905.05, Hong Kong's Hang Seng index gained 1.4% 23,338.02 and Japan's Nikkei Stock Average added 0.9% 10,624.09.

India's Sensex was up 0.7% to 17,823.02 and. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 slipped 0.1% 4831.66,

Commodities: Oil down, gold up
Crude futures were lower as oil producers Saudi Arabia and Kuwait appeared ready to make up for crude supplies lost due to the unrest in Libya.

More than half of Libya's 1.6 million barrels a day of oil output has stopped, keeping oil prices high in Europe. The bill for imported oil could be even bigger this year than it was in 2008 when crude jumped to $US147 a barrel, potentially endangering the continent's fragile economic recovery.

The EU will have to spend $US375 billion on oil imports – slightly more than the $US369 billion it paid out in 2008 and much higher than the $US221 billion paid in 2009 and the $2US99 billion spent last year.

Light, sweet crude for April delivery settled 91USc, or 0.9%, lower at $US96.97 a barrel in New York. Brent crude on the ICE futures exchange traded 7USc lower at $US112.07 a barrel.

Gold futures rose slightly as investors continued to seek refuge amid Middle East tensions. The most-actively traded gold contract, for April delivery, was up $US2.90, or 0.2%, at $US1412.12 an ounce in New York.

Currencies: Euro, pound up
The euro continued its recent strong rise as investors positioned themselves aggressively ahead of a European Central Bank meeting later this week.

While the euro traded well past the $US1.3800 mark, it did stop short of near four-month highs at the $US1.3863 level.

The euro was at $US1.3817 from $US1.3753 late on Friday in New York. It traded as high as $US1.3857.

The US dollar was at ¥81.86 from ¥81.66, while the euro was at ¥113.19 from ¥112.99. The UK pound rose to $US1.6257 from $US1.6116, while the dollar was at 0.9289 Swiss franc from 0.9283 franc.

The Canadian dollar has rallied to its highest level in more than three years after stronger-than-expected growth data had investors conjecturing the Bank of Canada could raise interest rates earlier than previously expected.

The US dollar traded at $C0.9744 from $C0.9783. The session low of $C0.9728 marks its lowest level since February 2008.