Market Update & Important Indicators
U.S. stocks rose Thursday, rebounding after the biggest two-day decline since late January. Stocks have bounced around lately, with the Dow moving 100 points or more in four of the past five sessions. On Tuesday the index fell more than 300 points, but with Thursday's increase the Dow is nearly flat for the week. Much of the rise and fall in the US market has been on speculation of the US Government raising interest rates.
European stock markets ended a highly volatile session on a mostly downbeat note, as investors digested disappointing U.S. retail sales and mixed corporate news. France's CAC 40 index fell 0.2% to 4,987.3, while Germany's DAX 30 index lost 0.1% to 11,799.4, easing back from a record closing high logged on Wednesday. Bucking the negative trend in Europe, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 index picked up 0.6% to 6,761.1, boosted by the index's drug makers.
Asian stocks rose on Thursday despite fall in the US in the previous day. Tokyo stocks touched their highest in nearly 15 years. The benchmark Nikkei Stock Average briefly topped the 19000 mark, before adding 1.4% to close at 18991.1. The Shanghai Composite Index jumped 1.8% to 3349.3, boosted by news that China will allow regional governments to roll over 1 trillion yuan of local government debt through the issue of new bonds.
Australia's stock market rose Thursday, reversing almost three days of losses, as modestly better jobs numbers did little to dissuade investors from hunting high-yielding stocks in anticipation of further-interest rate cuts. The S&P/ASX 200 closed nearly 1% higher at 5850.2.
Metals ion the LME were up with the exception of tin. Strong gains reversed much of the losses from earlier in the week. Copper was up 2.0% to US$2.66 and nickel rose 1.0% to US$6.28/lb. Gold was flat at US$1152/oz and the AUD/USD is trading at 0.77.
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