Stocks on Wall Street rose, buoyed by strong trade figures from China and expectations from the upcoming fourth-quarter earnings season.The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 45.80 points, or 0.4% to 10,663.99, led by a 6.3% gain in component Caterpillar.
Stocks on Wall Street rose, buoyed by strong trade figures from China and expectations from the upcoming fourth-quarter earnings season.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 45.80 points, or 0.4% to 10,663.99, led by a 6.3% gain in component Caterpillar. It was helped by December trade figures from China showing an 18% rise in exports and a 56% rise in imports compared with the year-ago period.
For all of 2009, China said its exports totaled $US1.2 trillion, pushing it past Germany as the world's top exporter.
Dow component Alcoa was up 2.5%. It releases its fourth-quarter figures after the market closes, kicking off the earnings season.
Walt Disney was down 1.6% after Janney Capital Markets downgraded it to neutral from buy, saying its box-office strength has been only "modest."
The S&P 500-share index rose 0.2% to 1146.98 as its consumer and tech sectors dragged on other gainers. The Nasdaq Composite Index fell 0.4% to 2312.41, hurt by drops in Amazon and AMD.
European stock markets advanced after Friday's US employment data reinforced hopes that the US Federal Reserve will keep monetary policy loose.
Basic resource companies led the gains after spot gold moved sharply higher, up $US19.77 at $US1157.20 per ounce, after breaking up through technical resistance.
Kazakhmys shares were 2.3% higher, while Xstrata added 2.6%. The pan-European Dow Jones Stoxx 600 basic resource index stood 2.3% higher at 545.69.
The pan-European Stoxx 600 index was 0.8% higher at 261.26, while London's FTSE 100 index gained 1.1% to 5596. Frankfurt's DAX was up 0.8% at 6088, and the CAC-40 index in Paris was 0.9% higher at 4084.
Commodities: Oil, gold up
Crude oil futures were at 15-month highs, buoyed by record crude import demand into China and greater investment flow into oil, in part due to a weaker dollar.
China reported record crude import levels for December with imports hitting 21.26 million tonnes, equivalent to 5.03 million barrels a day.
Light, sweet crude for February delivery recently traded 82USc, or 1%, higher at $US83.57 a barrel in New York. It touched an intraday high of $US83.95 a barrel. Brent crude on the ICE futures exchange traded 74USc, or 0.9%, higher at $US82.11 a barrel.
Gold futures moved sharply stronger, hitting their highest in a month as the US dollar weakened and commodities rose.
Gold for February delivery was up $US20.10 an ounce to $US1158.20 after peaking at $US1163, its highest since December 8.
Currencies: Dollar down, euro, yen up
The dollar slipped further against its rivals as positive Chinese economic data contrasted with the depressed US labour market.
Ultra-low interest rates are likely to stay around for a while, leading investors to the higher yields of the euro and commodity-backed and emerging market currencies.
The currency market seems to be moving back to the pattern traders followed for most of 2009: When risk is "on" because of sunny global economic data, investors sell the low-yielding dollar.
The euro was at $US1.4544 in New York from $US1.4414 late Friday. The dollar was at ¥91.86 from ¥92.59, while the euro was at ¥133.67 from ¥133.48.
The UK pound was at $US1.6165 from $US1.6034.
