الرئيسية
By PAN PYLAS, AP
LONDON (AP) — A perkier than anticipated return from the
Thanksgiving break on Wall Street helped Europe's main markets end their
long run of losses Friday despite an earlier retreat following grim
Italian bond auctions.
Futures markets had been indicating
declines at the U.S. open. Instead, investors used the opportunity to
buy up beaten-down stocks, albeit in thin volumes — many traders usually
tag on Friday to their Thanksgiving break too. The Dow Jones industrial
average was up 0.2 percent at 11,279, while the broader Standard &
Poor's 500 index rose 0.2 percent to 1,164.
They had been trading
even higher a little while before and that helped shore up European
markets, which have experienced a long run of reverses — Britain's FTSE
100 index of leading British shares for example had just sustained nine
straight days of declines, its longest such sequence since early 2003 in
the run-up to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.
"The recovery comes
as something of a surprise, since we remain stuck in the same mire as
before," said Chris Beauchamp, market analyst at IG Index.
At the
close, the FTSE was up 0.7 percent at 5,164.65 while Germany's DAX rose
1.2 percent to 5,492.87. The CAC-40 in France ended 1.2 percent higher
at 2,856.97. Even Italy's stock market ended 0.1 percent higher despite
the disappointment of having to pay much higher interest rates in a pair
of auctions. The news that its borrowing rates had spiked sharply
higher had earlier hit markets in Europe.
They provided yet more
evidence of the task facing the country's new technocratic government.
Italy's new premier Mario Monti faces a big battle to convince the
markets it has a strategy to get a grip on the country's massive debts.
Italy
had to pay an average yield of 7.814 percent to raise euro2 billion
($2.67 billion) in two-year bills. That rate was sharply higher on the
4.628 percent it had to pay in the previous auction in October. And even
raising euro8 billion ($10.7 billion) for six months proved
exorbitantly expensive. The yield for this auction spiked to 6.504
percent, nearly double the 3.535 percent rate in the last equivalent
auction last month.
Following the grim news on the auction front,
Italy's borrowing rates in the markets skyrocketed, with the ten-year
yield spiking to over 7.30 percent — above the 7 percent threshold that
is widely considered unsustainable in the long-run and eventually forced
Greece, Ireland and Portugal had to seek financial bailouts. It later
came off highs to be 0.28 percentage points higher at 7.24 percent.
The
renewed rise is likely to renew tensions over Italy's debts, which
stand at euro1.9 trillion ($2.6 trillion), or a huge 120 percent of its
economic output. Europe's current anti-crisis measures are too not big
enough to deal with Italy's debt mountain.
The improved stock
market tone allowed the euro to recoup some earlier losses. It was
trading 0.3 percent lower only at $1.3285, having earlier dropped to a
seven-week low of $1.3211.
Aside from Europe's debt crisis,
traders in the U.S. were bracing for a crucial test of the world's No. 1
economy — so-called Black Friday, the day that kicks off the holiday
shopping season. How well retailers do will have consequences for the
still-fragile U.S. economic recovery, as well as for the global economy.
Earlier
in Asia, trading was sluggish. Japan's Nikkei 225 index closed
marginally down at 8,160.01 while Hong Kong's Hang Seng dropped 1.4
percent to 17,689.48.
In mainland China, the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.7 percent to 2,380.22, its lowest closing level in a month.
Oil
prices tracked equities higher — benchmark crude for January delivery
was up 18 cents at $96.35 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York
Mercantile Exchange.
LONDON (AP) — A perkier than anticipated return from the
Thanksgiving break on Wall Street helped Europe's main markets end their
long run of losses Friday despite an earlier retreat following grim
Italian bond auctions.
Futures markets had been indicating
declines at the U.S. open. Instead, investors used the opportunity to
buy up beaten-down stocks, albeit in thin volumes — many traders usually
tag on Friday to their Thanksgiving break too. The Dow Jones industrial
average was up 0.2 percent at 11,279, while the broader Standard &
Poor's 500 index rose 0.2 percent to 1,164.
They had been trading
even higher a little while before and that helped shore up European
markets, which have experienced a long run of reverses — Britain's FTSE
100 index of leading British shares for example had just sustained nine
straight days of declines, its longest such sequence since early 2003 in
the run-up to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.
"The recovery comes
as something of a surprise, since we remain stuck in the same mire as
before," said Chris Beauchamp, market analyst at IG Index.
At the
close, the FTSE was up 0.7 percent at 5,164.65 while Germany's DAX rose
1.2 percent to 5,492.87. The CAC-40 in France ended 1.2 percent higher
at 2,856.97. Even Italy's stock market ended 0.1 percent higher despite
the disappointment of having to pay much higher interest rates in a pair
of auctions. The news that its borrowing rates had spiked sharply
higher had earlier hit markets in Europe.
They provided yet more
evidence of the task facing the country's new technocratic government.
Italy's new premier Mario Monti faces a big battle to convince the
markets it has a strategy to get a grip on the country's massive debts.
Italy
had to pay an average yield of 7.814 percent to raise euro2 billion
($2.67 billion) in two-year bills. That rate was sharply higher on the
4.628 percent it had to pay in the previous auction in October. And even
raising euro8 billion ($10.7 billion) for six months proved
exorbitantly expensive. The yield for this auction spiked to 6.504
percent, nearly double the 3.535 percent rate in the last equivalent
auction last month.
Following the grim news on the auction front,
Italy's borrowing rates in the markets skyrocketed, with the ten-year
yield spiking to over 7.30 percent — above the 7 percent threshold that
is widely considered unsustainable in the long-run and eventually forced
Greece, Ireland and Portugal had to seek financial bailouts. It later
came off highs to be 0.28 percentage points higher at 7.24 percent.
The
renewed rise is likely to renew tensions over Italy's debts, which
stand at euro1.9 trillion ($2.6 trillion), or a huge 120 percent of its
economic output. Europe's current anti-crisis measures are too not big
enough to deal with Italy's debt mountain.
The improved stock
market tone allowed the euro to recoup some earlier losses. It was
trading 0.3 percent lower only at $1.3285, having earlier dropped to a
seven-week low of $1.3211.
Aside from Europe's debt crisis,
traders in the U.S. were bracing for a crucial test of the world's No. 1
economy — so-called Black Friday, the day that kicks off the holiday
shopping season. How well retailers do will have consequences for the
still-fragile U.S. economic recovery, as well as for the global economy.
Earlier
in Asia, trading was sluggish. Japan's Nikkei 225 index closed
marginally down at 8,160.01 while Hong Kong's Hang Seng dropped 1.4
percent to 17,689.48.
In mainland China, the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.7 percent to 2,380.22, its lowest closing level in a month.
Oil
prices tracked equities higher — benchmark crude for January delivery
was up 18 cents at $96.35 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York
Mercantile Exchange.