World markets: US stocks bounce back
Banks led a recovery after Wall Street's steep drop on Thursday.
Stocks on Wall Street bounced back from Thursday’s steep loss, led by financial and healthcare shares.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 70.84 points, or 0.6%, to 12,644.41, paring its first weekly decline in three weeks.
JP Morgan Chase was among the Dow's biggest advancers. Bank of America, Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo also gained.
The S&P 500-stock index tacked on 0.7% to 1335.26. All 10 of the index's sectors traded higher, though industrials and utilities lagged behind.
The Nasdaq Composite added 1.2%, to 2892.42.
In Europe, markets were mostly lower, with the Stoxx Europe 600 down 0.7%, as more downbeat economic data weighed on sentiment. Benchmark indexes in the UK, Germany and France all rose on the week for the third week in a row.
Meanwhile, Spain's IBEX 35 index bucked the trend by rallying 1.5%, after an external audit said the country's banks will need to increase capital by up to €62 billion ($77.75 billion) to survive a worst-case scenario. That number was a lot lower than many had feared.
Asian markets were broadly lower with Japan's Nikkei Stock Average losing 0.3% but rising 2.7% on the week, its third weekly gain in a row.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index slumped 1.4%, down 1.2% on the week and six of the past seven.
Crude futures rose modestly after Thursday's steep losses in the oil market.
The August light sweet crude contract rose 45USc to $US78.65 a barrel in New York. The front-month Brent futures contract was up $US1.02 to $US90.27. The Nymex contract lost 4% of its value on Thursday.
Nevil Gibson
Sat, 23 Jun 2012
Sat, 23 Jun 2012
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World markets: US stocks bounce back
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