NEW YORK (AP) — Strong housing and earnings reports helped stocks rebound from their worst day of the year.
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Stock market rebounds from worst day of the year
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Showing posts with label rebounds. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
Tuesday, April 9, 2013
GLOBAL MARKETS-Stocks rise, helped by China data; yen rebounds
* Yen’s slide halts just before 100 to dollar
* BOJ action keeps global bond yields near lows
* Benign China inflation data boosts stock and commodity sentiment
* Stocks reflect earnings expectations and China data
NEW YORK, April 9 (Reuters) – Stocks around the world rose on Tuesday, helped by positive Chinese economic data that supported expectations of better corporate earnings, while the yen snapped a three-day decline against the U.S. dollar.
A report showing benign Chinese inflation raised hopes for a more accommodative monetary policy from China and also gave a lift to commodities, including copper and oil.
China’s annual consumer inflation cooled in March as food prices eased from nine-month highs and producer price deflation deepened, the data showed, leaving policymakers room to keep monetary conditions easy and nurture a nascent recovery.
That left stocks the key focus in financial markets as the yen struggled late in the global trading day after earlier reversing its recent decline against both the dollar and euro.
A significant driver of the U.S. stock rally has been the extraordinary stimulus measures from the Federal Reserve, and investors will be looking at company forecasts to gauge whether the fundamentals are strong enough to keep stocks climbing higher.
“The economy is still moving in the right direction, just less speedily than we want to see,” said Andrew Wilkinson, chief economic strategist at Miller Tabak & Co in New York.
The Dow Jones industrial average was up 92.61 points, or 0.63 percent, at 14,706.09. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index was up 9.42 points, or 0.60 percent, at 1,572.49. The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 22.63 points, or 0.70 percent, at 3,244.88.
Alcoa Inc, the first Dow component to release results, reported a higher quarterly profit but lower-than-expected revenue after the bell on Monday. Shares of the largest U.S. aluminum producer fell 0.1 percent to $ 8.38. .
Weak demand in Europe was a key drag on Alcoa’s results, and also hurt March sales at Volkswagen with shares in the German carmaker dropping 2.6 percent.
Europe’s FTSE Eurofirst 300 index finished up just 0.05 percent with concerns about weak first-quarter earnings outweighing prospects for continued strong metals demand from China.
But MSCI’s world equity index, which tracks share prices in 45 countries, was up 0.6 percent.
YEN VOLATILE
The yen remained the central trade in currency markets.
The Japanese currency weakened to 99.66 to the dollar, according to Reuters data, the greenback’s strongest level against the yen since May 2009, before the sell-off in the yen stalled and sent the dollar back to 98.58 yen.
Even as it happened, analysts were suggesting the yen’s advance would be temporary and it was only time before the Japanese unit would again weaken and the dollar sail past the 100-yen mark.
“Given the breadth of yen bearishness, any reprieve would likely encourage investors to re-establish short yen positions at more favorable exchange rates,” said Joe Manimbo, senior market analyst at Western Union Business Solutions in Washington, D.C.
Late in the New York session on Tuesday, the Japanese currency was down 0.1 percent at 99.23 yen.
The U.S. currency has still gained around 7 percent against the yen since the Bank of Japan unveiled a massive stimulus program Thursday involving large purchases of long-term Japanese government bonds.
WORLD DEBT
The BOJ’s bold measures have had a major impact on the world’s main debt markets, sending Japanese government yields down sharply and spurring a search for higher-yielding assets, which has caused yields to fall on U.S. and euro zone bonds.
“Markets are increasingly focused on the notion that larger JGB purchases, at longer maturities, by the BOJ could push Japanese domestic long-term investors elsewhere,” said Vassili Serebriakov, strategist at BNP Paribas in London.
However, yields on highly rated euro zone bonds moved up from record lows as investors began to position for fresh government debt auctions.
German 10-year bond yields were higher at 1.277 percent, having hit 1.2 percent on Friday, their lowest level since mid-2012 before European Central Bank President Mario Draghi promised to do whatever it took to save the euro. The euro rose against the yen for a fourth day, at one point, climbing to its highest since January 2010.
U.S. government debt prices were little changed on Tuesday.
Benchmark 10-year Treasury note yields were at 1.75 percent.
CHINA STIMULUS
The Chinese data underpinned demand for copper, which climbed to a two-week high of $ 7,645.25 a tonne on the London Metal Exchange before paring slightly to trade at $ 7,628.75 a tonne, up 2.4 percent.
Crude oil also gained on the Chinese data, and a stalemate in talks between Iran and Western nations over its nuclear program and rising tensions on the Korean peninsula also supported prices.
Brent rose 1.6 percent to $ 106.37. U.S. oil futures rose 0.9 percent to $ 94.24 a barrel and
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GLOBAL MARKETS-Stocks rise, helped by China data; yen rebounds
Friday, March 15, 2013
Factory output rebounds, gasoline leads CPI higher
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Tasha heads to checkout at a Walmart Store in Chicago, November 23, 2012.
Credit: Reuters/John Gress
WASHINGTON |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Consumer prices recorded their largest increase in nearly four years in February as the cost of gasoline surged, but details of the report on Friday showed no sign of a pickup in inflation to trouble the Federal Reserve.
The Labor Department said its Consumer Price Index increased 0.7 percent last month, the largest gain since June 2009, after being flat in January. Gasoline accounted for about three quarters of the spike in consumer inflation.
Economists polled by Reuters had expected the CPI to advance 0.5 percent.
In the 12-months through February, consumer prices rose 2.0 percent, the largest gain since October. They had increased 1.6 percent in January.
Fed officials are likely to dismiss the gasoline-driven jump in price pressures as temporary when they meet next week to evaluate the economy.
Gasoline rose 9.1 percent, the largest gain since June 2009, after falling 3.0 percent in January. Gas prices at the pump, however, have declined in the past two weeks.
Excluding food and energy, consumer prices rose 0.2 percent slowing from January’s 0.3 percent advance.
The generally benign underlying price pressures should give the U.S. central bank scope to keep pumping money into the economy, despite signs of improvement in labor market conditions.
The Fed last year embarked on an open-ended bond buying program and said it would keep it up until it saw a substantial improvement in the outlook for the labor market. It hopes the purchases will drive down borrowing costs.
In the 12 months through February, so-called core CPI increased 2.0 percent, also the largest increase since October, after rising 1.9 percent in January.
Last month, food prices edged up 0.1 percent after being flat in January. There is still no sign of a pass-through from last summer’s drought.
Housing costs maintained their steady rise. Owners’ equivalent rent, which accounts for about a third of the core CPI, rose 0.2 percent after a similar gain in January.
Apparel prices fell 0.1 percent after increasing 0.8 percent in January. New motor vehicle prices fell 0.3 percent after gaining 0.1 percent the prior month.
Prices for used cars and trucks rose for a second straight month.
(Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Andrea Ricci)
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Factory output rebounds, gasoline leads CPI higher
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
US STOCKS-Wall St rebounds as Bernanke defends policy
* S&P 500 bounces back from biggest daily drop since Nov. 7
* Possible stalemate in Italy remains a concern
* Home Depot rises as profit, sales top expectations
* Dow up 0.8 pct, S&P up 0.6 pct, Nasdaq up 0.4 pct
By Chuck Mikolajczak
NEW YORK, Feb 26 (Reuters) – U.S. stocks climbed on Tuesday, rebounding from their worst decline since November after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke defended the Fed’s bond-buying stimulus before Congress.
Bernanke, in testimony before the Senate Banking Committee, strongly defended the Fed’s bond-buying stimulus program and quieted rumblings that the central bank may pull back from its stimulative policy measures, which were sparked by the release of the Fed minutes last week.
Bernanke’s testimony helped ease concerns about a stalemate in Italy after a general election failed to give any party a parliamentary majority, posing the threat of prolonged instability and financial crisis in Europe, and sending the S&P 500 to its worst decline since early November in the previous sessions.
Bernanke “certainly said everything the market needed to feel in order to get comfortable again,” said Peter Kenny, managing director at Knight Capital in Jersey City, New Jersey.
“The fear is we were going to see a rollover, and the first shot over the bow was what we saw out of Italy yesterday with the elections,” Kenny said. “When it came to U.S. markets, we saw some of that bleeding stop because our focus shifted from the Italian political circus to Ben Bernanke.”
Gains in homebuilders and other consumer stocks, following strong economic data, lifted the S&P 500 and a 5.6 percent jump in Home Depot to $ 67.38 boosted the Dow industrials. The PHLX housing sector index rose 3.3 percent.
However, the central bank chairman also urged lawmakers to avoid sharp spending cuts set to go into effect on Friday, which he warned could combine with earlier tax increases to create a “significant headwind” for the economic recovery.
The Dow Jones industrial average climbed 109.04 points, or 0.79 percent, to 13,893.21. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index gained 8.96 points, or 0.60 percent, to 1,496.81. The Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 13.46 points, or 0.43 percent, to 3,129.71.
Despite the bounce, the S&P 500 also failed to move above 1,500, a closely watched level that was technical support until recently, but it could now become a hurdle.
The uncertainty caused by the Italian elections continues to weigh on stocks in Europe. The FTSEurofirst-300 index of top European shares closed down 1.4 percent. The benchmark Italian index tumbled 4.9 percent.
Home Depot gave the biggest boost to the Dow and provided one of the biggest lifts to the S&P 500 after the world’s largest home improvement chain reported adjusted earnings and sales that beat expectations. The stock climbed 5.6 percent to $ 67.47.
Macy’s shares gained 3.6 percent to $ 39.90 after the department-store chain stated it expects full-year earnings to be above analysts’ forecasts because of strong holiday sales.
Economic reports that showed strength in housing and consumer confidence also supported stocks. U.S. home prices rose more than expected in December, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller index. Consumer confidence rebounded in February, jumping more than expected, and new-home sales rose to their highest in 4-1/2 years.
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US STOCKS-Wall St rebounds as Bernanke defends policy
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