BLBG:Stocks Extend Weekly Gain as Italy Moves to Reduce Debt; Euro, Oil Climb
Stocks (MXAP) rose, extending the biggest weekly gain since March 2009, as the euro and oil advanced as Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti proposed budget cuts and leaders prepared to meet on Europe’s debt crisis.
The MSCI All Country World Index increased 0.3 percent as of 8:01 a.m. in London, adding to its 8.4 percent surge last week. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index gained 0.7 percent while Standard & Poor’s 500 Index futures jumped 1.1 percent. The euro appreciated 0.3 percent to $1.3429, while the yen fell against most of its 16 major counterparts. Oil climbed for a second day to $101.41 a barrel.
Monti will present the 30 billion euros ($40 billion) plan, designed to reduce the euro-region’s second-biggest debt, to policy makers in Rome today. German Chancellor Angela Merkel is scheduled to meet French President Nicolas Sarkozy to advance a plan for stricter enforcement of the region’s deficit rules that will be presented at a leaders’ summit on Dec. 9.
“Everything points in the direction of something big coming out of this week’s meeting,” said Khoon Goh, head of market economics and strategy at ANZ National Bank Ltd. in Wellington. “In the early part of this week we will continue to see risk appetite improve.”
S&P 500 futures expiring in December climbed to 1,257.2. Treasuries fell, pushing the yield on the 10-year note up three basis points to 2.06 percent. Service industries in the U.S. probably expanded in November at the fastest pace in six months, a sign the economy is accelerating in the final months of 2011, economists said before a report today.
Chow Tai Fook
The Shanghai Stock Exchange Composite Index retreated 1.2 percent to a six-week low. A purchasing managers’ index of non- manufacturing industries for November fell to 49.7 from 57.7 the previous month, the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing said on Dec. 3. A reading above 50 indicates expansion.
Chow Tai Fook Jewellery Group Ltd. aims to raise as much as HK$22 billion ($2.8 billion) in what may be Hong Kong’s biggest initial public offering this year as luxury-goods companies tap growing affluence in China. The jewelry chain set a price range of HK$15 to HK$21 for the 1.05 billion new shares on sale, according to a prospectus released yesterday.
The MSCI All Country World Index (MXWD) posted a sixth consecutive day of gains, the longest streak since October. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.8 percent and Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average climbed 0.6 percent.
Asia Growth
Energy Resources of Australia Ltd., a uranium producer controlled by Rio Tinto Group, rallied 9.8 percent for the biggest advance in the S&P/ASX 200. (AS51) Deep Yellow Ltd. (DYL), which explores for uranium, jumped 10 percent. Australia, holder of the world’s biggest uranium reserves, cleared a political hurdle to supplying India with the nuclear fuel after the governing Labor Party voted yesterday to end an export ban.
“If you look at the whole world and where is the growth coming from, clearly it’s still coming from Asia,” Joseph Tan, Singapore-based chief economist for Asia at Credit Suisse Group AG’s private-banking division, said in a Bloomberg Television interview. “A lot of companies are still producing very decent earnings.”
The euro extended its first weekly climb against the dollar in more than a month. A proposal to channel European Central Bank loans through the International Monetary Fund may deliver as much as 200 billion euros ($268 billion) to fight the region’s debt crisis, according to two people familiar with the negotiations.
Oil for January delivery rose as much as 0.8 percent to $101.73 a barrel. Iran said oil will breach $250 a barrel if nations threaten to ban its purchases, according to the Shargh newspaper. Iran pumped 5 percent of the world’s oil last year, according to BP Plc’s Statistical Review of World Energy.
Palladium rose 0.7 percent to $648.25 an ounce. The metal that’s used mostly in catalytic converters for vehicles jumped 13 percent last week after U.S. car sales expanded at the fastest pace in more than two years.
To contact the reporters on this story: Lynn Thomasson in Hong Kong at lthomasson@bloomberg.net; Candice Zachariahs in Sydney at czachariahs2@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Rocky Swift at rswift5@bloomberg.net
