SF: Stocks, S&P 500 Futures Climb on Payrolls as Treasuries Fall
Nov. 2 (Bloomberg) -- Stocks and U.S. equity-index futures rallied after American payrolls rose more than forecast in October. Treasuries fell while the dollar extended gains against the euro and the yen.
The Stoxx Europe 600 Index rose 0.5 percent at 9:10 a.m. in New York. Standard & Poor’s 500 Index futures added 0.4 percent. The yield on 10-year Treasuries rose five basis points to 1.77 percent. The dollar strengthened against all but five of its 16 major counterparts, advancing 0.6 percent versus the euro and the yen. The S&P GSCI gauge of 24 raw materials slid less than 0.1 percent, after falling as much as 0.6 percent.
In the last jobs report before next week’s election, a net 171,000 workers were added to payrolls after a 148,000 gain in September that was more than first estimated, Labor Department said. The increase surpassed the most optimistic forecast in the Bloomberg survey in which the median called for an advance of 125,000. Unemployment rose to 7.9 percent as more people entered the labor force.
The report “was better than expected and the revisions were significant,” Stephen Wood, the New York-based chief market strategist for North America for Russell Investments, which oversees $152 billion, said by phone. “That’s consistent with the grinding recovery that we have in the U.S and the slight upward bias that we’ve seen in the data.”
The S&P 500 has advanced 1.1 percent this week after Hurricane Sandy shut U.S. markets on Oct. 29 and Oct. 30. LinkedIn Corp. climbed 7 percent in early New York trading after the biggest professional-networking website reported third- quarter sales that exceeded analysts’ forecasts. Starbucks Corp., the world’s largest coffee-shop operator, advanced 8.9 percent as fourth-quarter profit topped estimates.
Beiersdorf Climbs
The Stoxx 600 is up 1.8 percent this week. Beiersdorf AG, the maker of Nivea skin cream, rose 6.9 percent to the highest since at least 1996 as the company raised its forecast for sales growth and reported third-quarter profit that beat estimates. Alcatel-Lucent SA sank 8.5 percent today after the French phone- equipment maker swung to a loss in the third quarter.
Greece’s ASE Index rose 3.8 percent, trimming this week’s decline to 9.7 percent. The nation’s shares have tumbled as coalition government lawmakers squabble over austerity that a Bundesbank official warned must be enforced to ensure the country receives international bailout funds.
A gauge of manufacturing in the euro area fell to 45.4 from 46.1 in September, Markit Economics said. That compares with an initial estimate of 45.3 published on Oct. 24. A reading below 50 indicates contraction.
Emerging Markets
The MSCI Emerging Markets Index advanced 0.6 percent. The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index of mainland companies added 1.2 percent, up 20 percent from a Sept. 5 low, marking the start of a bull market. The Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.6 percent today, India’s Sensex index climbed 1 percent and Russia’s Micex Index gained 0.7 percent.
South Korea’s Kospi index jumped 1.1 percent as Samsung Heavy Industries Co., the world’s second-large shipbuilder, rallied the most in eight months on better-than-estimated profit.
--With assistance from Richard Frost in Hong Kong, Claudia Carpenter, Nicholas Reynolds, Andrew Rummer, Michael Shanahan and Steve Voss in London. Editors: Stephen Kirkland, Justin Carrigan, Lynn Thomasson
To contact the reporter on this story: Stephen Kirkland in London at skirkland@bloomberg.net; Nikolaj Gammeltoft in New York at ngammeltoft@bloomberg.net;
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Justin Carrigan at jcarrigan@bloomberg.net
