Wall St rises on lower unemployment

Stocks on Wall Street bounced back from the biggest drop in two weeks after weekly jobless claims dipped.

Unemployment benefits fell slightly to 351,000 in the latest week, lower than economists had been expected. The four-week moving average is at its lowest level in nearly four years,

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up as much as 80 points before pulling back after the Institute for Supply Management's purchasing manager index fell last month, indicating lower manufacturing growth.

At the close (10am NZ time) the Dow was up 28.45 points, or 0.2%, at 12,980.52.

The S&P 500 index was up 0.6% to 1374.07 and the Nasdaq Composite added 0.7% to 2988.97.

Financial and materials were the best-performing sectors in the S&P 500. Among blue chips, JP Morgan Chase added 2.7% and Pfizer tacked on 2%. Bank of America climbed 1.8%, after the Wall Street Journal reported the bank was working on sweeping changes, including fees on cheque accounts.

Ford Motor rose 2.5% and General Motors gained 1.7% after reporting strong US vehicle sales last month. Chrysler Group reported a 40% increase for February.

Other markets: Europe up, Asia down
European stocks rose with banks leading the advance after the latest long-term liquidity boost by the European Central Bank.

The Stoxx Europe 600 index closed up 1% at 267.06. The UK's FTSE 100 index ended up 1% at 5931.25, Germany's DAX rose 1.3% to 6941.77 and France's CAC-40 index ended up 1.4% at 3499.73.

Asian stock markets ended mostly lower as Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke's cautious remarks on the US economy overshadowed an improvement in China's manufacturing activity.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 Index dropped 1% to 4255.50, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index fell 1.5% to 21,387.96 and Japan's Nikkei Stock Average shed 0.2% to 9707.37.

The Shanghai Composite slipped 0.1% to 2426.11 and India's Sensex fell 1.0% to 17,583.97. Korea's Kospi was closed for a holiday.

Commodities: Oil above $US110, gold up
Oil futures broke through $110 a barrel in electronic trading after the close of New York floor trading Thursday amid reports of a pipeline explosion in Saudi Arabia.

Light, sweet crude for April delivery rose $US1.77, or 1.7%, to settle at $US108.84 a barrel in New York. Brent crude on the ICE Futures Europe exchange was up 85USc, or 0.7%, to $US123.51 a barrel.

Gold futures recovered from a sharp selloff in the previous session and rode the coattails of higher equities and oil prices.

Gold for April delivery advanced $US10.90, or 0.6%, to settle at $US1722.20 an ounce in New York.

Currencies: US dollar gains
The US dollar advanced after a trade body's ruling that Greece's privately held debt restructuring hasn't met the threshold of a "credit event."

The euro was at $US1.3312 compared with $US1.3324 late on Wednesday. It briefly dipped under $US1.33.

The US dollar was at ¥81.13 compared with ¥81.15, while the euro traded at ¥107.99 from ¥108.13.

The UK pound traded at $US1.5948 from $US1.5918, while the dollar fetched 0.9062 Swiss franc from 0.9044 franc.