SF: Euro Rises to Three-Week High as U.S. Stock Futures Advance
Nov. 23 (Bloomberg) -- The euro strengthened to a three- week high after a report showed German business confidence unexpectedly rose in November. U.S. stock-index futures gained, and Taiwanese shares climbed the most in 11 months.
The euro advanced 0.2 percent to $1.2904 at 7:45 a.m. in New York after touching $1.2911, the highest level since Nov. 2. Standard & Poor’s 500 Index futures added 0.2 percent from Nov. 21, following yesterday’s closure of markets for the Thanksgiving holiday. The 10-year Treasury yield fell one basis point to 1.67 percent. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index swung between gains and losses as it headed for the biggest weekly advance in more than nine months. The Taiex index jumped 3.1 percent after the Central News Agency cited Taiwan’s finance minister as saying state-controlled funds should buy stocks.
The Munich-based Ifo institute said its business climate index climbed to 101.4 this month, compared with an estimated reading of 99.5 based on the median of 48 forecasts in a Bloomberg survey. Stocks have rallied this week as data from the U.S. and China added to signs the world’s two largest economies are recovering. Euro-area finance ministers will meet Nov. 26 to discuss aid to Greece after leaders failed to agree the bloc’s next seven-year budget at a summit in Brussels.
The improvement in the Ifo data “is quite a positive sign,” Evelyn Herrmann, European economist at BNP Paribas SA in London, wrote in a e-mailed note. “Better-than-expected surveys from China and the U.S. might have convinced German industrials that they will sooner or later benefit from the manufacturing sector recovery outside the eurozone, thereby at least offsetting the drag that they have from continued contraction” in the euro area, Herrmann said.
Euro Gains
The euro gained against 12 of its 16 main counterparts. The yen strengthened against all of its major peers, advancing 0.3 percent against the dollar.
Spain’s 10-year bond yield rose two basis points to 5.68 percent. Greek 10-year bonds fell for the first time in 11 days, pushing the yield eight basis points higher to 16.44 percent.
“Overall market activity is subdued following the holiday in the U.S. and as investors wait for a solution to Greece’s debt problem,” Monthol Junchaya, chief investment officer at Bangkok-based One Asset Management Ltd., which manages about $2.3 billion of assets, said by phone today.
The number of shares changing hands in Stoxx 600 companies was 33 percent lower than the 30-day average today, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Utilities Fall
EON AG and Veolia Environnement SA led losses among utilities. Outotec Oyj, a Finnish supplier of mining technology and services, rallied 6.8 percent after forecasting improved sales and profit margins in 2013.
Oil fell 0.2 percent to $87.24 a barrel in New York from the close on Nov. 21. Gold for immediate delivery rose 0.2 percent to $1,733.45 an ounce in London, advancing for a third day. The precious metal is set for a 1.2 percent gain this week after central banks boosted reserves and holdings in exchange- traded products climbed to a record.
The MSCI Emerging Markets Index gained 0.5 percent, advancing for a fifth day. The trading volume on Taiwan’s benchmark equity gauge was 73 percent higher than the 30-day average, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The Shanghai Composite Index added 0.6 percent and Russia’s Micex Index advanced 0.2 percent.
Argentina’s restructured dollar debt due in 2017 dropped 3.88 cents, extending yesterday’s 2.2-cent slump, after a U.S. court said Nov. 21 that Argentina must pay so-called holdout creditors from its record $95 billion default in full next month.
--With assistance from Anuchit Nguyen in Bangkok, John Deane, Paul Dobson, Andrew Rummer and Steve Voss in London. Editors: Stephen Kirkland, Stuart Wallace, Justin Carrigan
To contact the reporters on this story: Stephen Kirkland in London at skirkland@bloomberg.net; Richard Frost in Hong Kong at rfrost4@bloomberg.net;
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Stuart Wallace at Swallace6@bloomberg.net
