Wall Street stocks recover on commodity rebound

Stocks on Wall Street reversed their sharp morning losses to pile on gains as commodities bounced back and defensive stocks strengthened.
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At the close (8am NZ time), the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 65.89 points, or 0.5% to 12,695.92. The S&P 500 index was up 0.5% to 1348.65 and the Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.65% to 2863.35.

Consumer-staples and telecom sector helped erase a morning slide that had the Dow off by as much as 93 points. Exxon Mobil and Chevron both moved into positive territory after stumbling deep into the red earlier in trading.

Financials were the worst performers of the day, dragged down by a 2% tumble in Citigroup shares. Goldman Sachs was the worst decliner among the S&P 500 stocks, falling 4.5%. J.P. Morgan Chase fell 0.9%, and Bank of America was off 0.6%.

Other markets: Commodities drop drags Europe, Asia lower
Mining stocks posted steep losses, pulling down European shares. Commodity prices tumbled after China increased its reserve requirements for banks yet again.

The Stoxx Europe 600 Index fell 0.7% to close at 281.80. The UK's FTSE 100 index fell 0.5% to 5944.96, France's CAC-40 index ended down 0.9% at 4023.29 and Germany's DAX fell 0.7% to 7443.95.

Asian shares fell after Wednesday’s drop in energy markets.

A selloff in Sydney stocks was made worse by disappointing jobs data. The S&P/ASX 200 slumpped 1.8% to 4,696.10.

Korea's Kospi shed 2% to 2122.65 and Japan's Nikkei Stock Average declined 1.5% to 9716.65. China's Shanghai Composite gave up 1.4% to 2844.08, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index lost 0.9% to 23,073.76 and India's Sensex dropped 1.3% to 18,335.79.

Commodities: Oil recovers losses, gold falls
Oil futures broke into positive territory after a dive toward levels last seen before uprisings in the Middle East.

Light, sweet crude for June delivery settled 76USc, or 0.8%, higher at $US98.97 a barrel in New York after trading as low as $US95.25. Brent crude on the ICE futures exchange was roughly flat at slightly more than $US113 a barrel.

Gold prices extended their losses while silver futures slumped closer to $US30 an ounce. The gold contract for May delivery settled $US5.50, or 0.4%, at $US1506.60 an ounce. Silver's May-delivery contract was down 71.6USc, or 2%, at $US34.7930 an ounce after hitting an intra-day low of $US32.595.

Currencies: Euro bounces back
After falling below $US1.42 against the dollar earlier in the session, the euro picked up gains as US stocks and oil futures recovered losses.

The euro rose to $US1.4250 from $US1.4201 late on Wednesday and to ¥115.38 from ¥115.07.

The commodity-linked Australian dollar slipped to $US1.0688 from $US1.0693. The dollar bought ¥80.88 from ¥81.03.

The pound was at $US1.6313 from $US1.6347, while the dollar traded at 0.8829 Swiss franc from 0.8871 franc.