Stocks on Wall Street clawed back some of last Friday's losses as investors looked expectantly to a week full of corporate-earnings reports.The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 56.63 points, or 0.6%, to 10,154.43, recovering some of its previous sess
Stocks on Wall Street clawed back some of last Friday’s losses as investors looked expectantly to a week full of corporate-earnings reports.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 56.63 points, or 0.6%, to 10,154.43, recovering some of its previous session drop of 261 points – its biggest drop of the month.
The Nasdaq Composite gained 0.9% to 2198.23, while the S&P 500 index also notched a 0.9% gain to 1071.25.
Other markets: Europe, Asia down
European stocks fell, although investors pushed stocks higher for most of the session as they focused on a burst of deal activity.
International Power rose 10% after France's GDF Suez confirmed it is in preliminary talks with the company to merge assets outside of Europe.
Engineering and manufacturing company Tomkins surged 28% following a bid from Canadian private-equity firm Onex and the Canada Pension Investment Board.
The upbeat mood unravelled after some soft US housing data, which showed confidence in new-home sales fell to its lowest level since April 2009..
The Stoxx Europe 600 index closed down 0.8% at 246.18. France's CAC-40 index ended down 0.4% at 3486.33 and Germany's DAX fell 0.5% to 6009.11.
Most Asian markets dropped after steep losses on Wall Street last Friday prompted selling, though the magnitude of the fall was limited by a strong rebound for Chinese stocks and merger-and-acquisition news.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 dropped 1.5% to 4358.31, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index lost 0.8% to close at 20,090.95, India’s Sensex was down 0.1% to 17,928.42 and Korea’s Kospi was down 0.4% to 2945.42.
The Shanghai Composite bucked the trend to jump 2.1% to 2475.42 as banking, property and consumer stocks rose on hopes that Beijing may not introduce more restrictive policies to cool the economy.
Japan was closed for Marine Day.
Commodities: Oil up, gold down
Crude futures were higher, erasing losses from late last week after Wall Street opened higher.
Light, sweet crude for August delivery traded 90USc, or 1.2%, higher at $US76.92 a barrel in New York, after rising as high as $US77.69 a barrel. Brent crude on the ICE futures exchange traded up $US1 at $US76.37 a barrel.
Oil remains stuck in a $US70-80 a barrel trading range as mixed economic data and indications of future oil demand leave traders wary of venturing too far either way.
Gold futures extended declines made at the end of last week amid a lack of confidence in the economic recovery and weak support from refuge buying.
Gold for July delivery declined $US6.30 an ounce, or 0.5% to $US1181.70 in New York.
Currencies: Euro up, dollar down
The euro strengthened against the US dollar, as investors anticipated that stress tests of European banks would allay concerns about the region's banking sector.
The euro managed the advance despite the downgrade of Ireland's credit rating on Monday and the breakdown in funding talks between Hungary and the International Monetary Fund over the weekend.
Disappointing US housing data also helped the euro advance against the dollar.
The euro was at $US1.2961, compared with $US1.2927 late on Friday. The dollar moved to ¥87.78 from ¥86.67. The euro strengthened to ¥112.47 from ¥111.95.
The UK pound weakened to $US1.5219 from $US1.53.
