Europe Stocks Climb as Dollar Weakens While Precious Metals European stocks rose after the regional benchmark gauge’s biggest drop in two months, and gold climbed while the ruble led gains against the U.S. dollar before Federal Reserve minutes and a Treasury auction. Palladium headed for the highest close in more than 13 years. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index added 0.2 percent by 8:13 a.m. in London, after a 1.4 percent loss yesterday, and futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index were little changed. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index slid 1.6 percent as casino operators and developers dropped. Russia’s ruble climbed 0.5 percent. Gold added 0.4 percent and palladium traded at $873.28 an ounce. The yield on 10-year Japanese government notes hit the lowest since April 2013. Global equities retreated the last three days after total world market capitalization hit a record $66 trillion last week. Internet stocks including Twitter Inc. drove U.S. declines yesterday on concern they have risen too far too fast, while minutes of the Federal Reserve’s June meeting are due today. Consumer-price inflation in China slowed last month, data today showed, while a measure of factory-gate prices fell by the least in more than two years. Indonesians vote for a new president today. “Stocks pulled back and the dollar remained weak, which supports gold,” said Sarah Xie, a Hong Kong-based analyst at Wing Fung Financial Group Ltd. “Though investors expect an early rate hike, the Fed Reserve might be conservative. Gold may rebound if the minutes let investors down.” Gold, Bonds Gold, seen as a haven investment, climbed to $1,324.41. Palladium for immediate delivery rose 0.1 percent, heading for a 13th straight daily increase. The longest winning streak since June 2000 is propelling the metal toward the highest closing price since February 2001. The Bloomberg Commodity Index rose for the first time in four days. Japan’s 10-year government notes paid 0.548 percent, about 1 basis point less than yesterday and touched 0.545 percent, the lowest since April 11 last year. Yields on Australian government bonds due in a decade fell a second day, declining five basis points, or 0.05 percentage point, to 3.52 percent. The rate on similar-maturity Treasuries was little changed at 2.56 percent after falling five basis points in New York to cap the biggest two-day drop since May. The U.S. will auction $21 billion of the securities today. A gauge tracking 20 emerging-market currencies against the U.S. dollar climbed to the highest since May 26 today. Just two of 24 developing economy currencies were weaker versus the greenback today. U.S. Declines The S&P 500 dropped 0.7 percent to close at 1,963.71 in a second day of losses, while the technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index slid 1.4 percent, its steepest one-day decline since May. Twitter and Pandora Media Inc., which trade at more than 150 times projected earnings, plunged at least 7 percent in U.S. trading. The S&P 500 trades at 16.6 times projected earnings, above a five-year average valuation of 14.3. Three rounds of monetary stimulus from the Fed and better- than-forecast corporate earnings have driven the S&P 500 up more than 190 percent from a low reached in March 2009. The minutes due today are from the Fed Open Market Committee’s June 17-18 meeting, when policy makers trimmed monthly asset purchases by $10 billion for the fifth straight occasion, saying economic growth and the job market are improving. Alcoa Inc. jumped more than 1 percent in after-hours trading as the company that unofficially kicks off U.S. earnings seasons reported sales and profit that exceeded analysts’ estimates. Citigroup Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Goldman Sachs, Yahoo! Inc. and Johnson & Johnson are among companies reporting financial results in the next week.
Posted on: Wed, 09 Jul 2014 14:25:44 +0000
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