U.S. Stocks, Dollar Advance; Oil, Gold, Silver Rebound

Bikram Pandey
09 May, 2011
New York City

U.S. stocks retained positive bias as European markets declined and Asian markets struggled. Sovereign debt default worries resurfaced after Greek bond yields soared above 25%. Commodities rebounded. Crude oil gained 5% gold gained 1.4% and silver soared 7%.

[R]4:00 PM New York – U.S. stocks retained positive bias as European markets declined and Asian markets struggled. Sovereign debt default worries resurfaced after Greek bond yields soared above 25%. Commodities rebounded. Crude oil gained 5% gold gained 1.4% and silver soared 7%.[/R]

U.S. stocks struggled to hold early gains as commodities rose and sovereign default worries resurfaced in the euro-zone. Gold gained 1% and silver rebounded more than 4% as precious metals rallied after a sell-off last week. Hertz revised its offer for Dollar Thrifty.

Dynegy reported first quarter net loss of $77 million. Sysco third quarter net earnings rose to $258.5 million. Sempra Energy first quarter net income soared to$258 million. The AES first quarter net income surged to $224 million. Zoran quarterly net loss widened to $30.3 million.

European markets opened lower and declined sharply in the late afternoon on the worries that Greek bonds may face restructuring as early as next month. Banks and insurance companies declined in the region. Yields on 2-year Greek bonds surged to 25.4% and yields on Irish and Portuguese bonds surged.

UK indexes declined tracking the losses in European markets. Commodities rebound lifted resource stocks. Gold gained 1% and silver added 4% and crude oil advanced 2%. Centrica plunged 11% after it estimated slower earnings growth. HSBC net soared 50% and Barclays set aside £1 billion to cover misleading payment protection insurance sales.

Investors sold stocks in Tokyo for the second day in a row on uncertainty related to power supply in central Japan. Prime Minister Naoto Kan ordered the temporary shutdown of a nuclear power plant in an earthquake prone zone. Chubu Electric dropped 10%. Kirin and Yamaha declined on earnings worries.

Stocks in Mumbai edged slightly higher after companies announced better than expected earnings. Adani Power, Federal Bank and Hindustan Unilever gained after the release of earnings. Piramal Life Sciences gained after it announced the spinoff of its research division.

Australian stocks edged higher in a cautious trading ahead of federal budget tomorrow. The Australian dollar advanced and crude oil closed higher. The Australian economy continues to create jobs as the latest private survey showed a sharp jump in jobs ads. The ads increased for the eleventh month in a row.

Commodities, Bonds and Currencies

The 10-year bond yield decreased to 3.13% and 30-year bond fell to 4.30%.

The U.S. dollar decreased to $1.434 to a euro and fell against the Japanese yen to 80.24 yen.

Immediate delivery futures of Texas crude oil increased $5.53 to $102.71 a barrel, of natural gas increased 0.06 cents to $4.17 per mbtu and gasoline prices decreased 20.17 cents to 329.18 cents a gallon.

In metals trading, copper prices increased 6.5 cents to $4.04 per pound, gold increased $20.70 to $1,512.30 per ounce and silver increased $2.42 to $37.71.