BLBG:Stocks Rise First Time in Four Days on U.S. Jobs as Gold, Aussie Advance
Stocks rose, paring a weekly loss, as commodities and the Australian dollar rallied as better-than- expected U.S. data signaled the world’s biggest economy is strengthening.
The MSCI All Country World Index gained 0.2 percent as of 8:07 a.m. in London, poised for a 3.5 percent retreat for the week. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index increased 0.3 percent and Standard & Poor’s 500 Index futures rose 0.5 percent. India’s rupee jumped 1.5 percent after the central bank introduced measures to curb currency speculation. The Australian dollar appreciated 0.7 percent to $0.999. Gold, copper and aluminum rallied at least 1.3 percent.
U.S. initial jobless claims unexpectedly dropped to a three-year low and Federal Reserve gauges of manufacturing in the New York and Philadelphia regions topped estimates. Singapore’s exports exceeded economists’ projections, while Fitch Ratings boosted Indonesia’s sovereign debt ratings to investment grade. European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said yesterday there’s no “external savior” for indebted countries that don’t implement structural reforms and the central bank’s buying government bonds isn’t limitless.
“The downside risk in equity markets, most notably European equity markets at the moment, is very low,” Bob Parker, a senior adviser at Credit Suisse Asset Management, said from London in a Bloomberg Television interview. The firm oversees about $453 billion. “We’re still in a situation where Chinese growth will be maintained above 8 percent in 2012.”
Euro Gains
The euro fell less than 0.1 percent to $1.3011, extending the biggest weekly decline in three months. Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti faces a confidence vote in Parliament today to speed passage of a 30 billion-euro ($39 billion) emergency budget plan aimed at spurring growth.
S&P 500 futures rose to 1,217.80, signaling that the U.S. equity benchmark may extend yesterday’s 0.3 percent advance, when two stocks (MXWD) rose for each that fell. The S&P 500 has lost 3.3 percent in 2011, the second-best performance among 24 developed markets after New Zealand.
The number of applications for unemployment payments in the U.S. dropped by 19,000 to 366,000 in the week ended Dec. 10, a lower total than was forecast by any of 47 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News, according to government figures released yesterday.
The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield rose one basis point to 1.92 percent. U.S. consumer prices probably rose 0.1 percent in November after falling the previous month, according to a survey of economists before the Labor Department report today. Inflation-linked debt has returned 14 percent to investors this year, set for the biggest annual gain since 2002, an index compiled by Bank of America Merrill Lynch shows.
Yuan, Rupee
About two stocks rose for each that fell in Stoxx Europe 600, which has tumbled 15 percent this year. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index climbed 0.8 percent. The Shanghai Composite Index snapped a six-day losing streak, jumping 2 percent.
The Chinese yuan gained as much as 0.7 percent to 6.3294 per dollar, the strongest level since China unified official and market exchange rates at the end of 1993, amid signs credit curbs are easing. Banks in Shenzhen are joining peers in Beijing and Shanghai in cutting mortgage rates for first-time homebuyers, the Securities Times reported.
The Indian rupee rose to 52.8363 per dollar after falling to an all-time low of 54.3050 yesterday. Forward contracts once canceled cannot be bought again, the Reserve Bank of India said in a statement on its website yesterday. The new rule applies to domestic as well as foreign investors and takes effect immediately.
Immediate-delivery gold rose for the first time in five days, gaining 1.5 percent to $1,593.41 an ounce. Copper for three-month delivery climbed 1.8 percent to $7,338.25 a metric ton on the London Metal Exchange. Aluminum increased 1.4 percent to $2,003 a ton. Oil rose 0.4 percent to $94.28 a barrel, poised for a 5.2 percent weekly retreat, the most since September.
To contact the reporters on this story: Lynn Thomasson in Hong Kong at lthomasson@bloomberg.net; Yoshiaki Nohara in Tokyo at ynohara1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Richard Dobson at rdobson4@bloomberg.net; Nick Gentle at ngentle2@bloomberg.net
