Weekly Rise of 6% in U.S. stocks, Oil Up 4.5%

Bikram Pandey
01 Jul, 2011
New York City

U.S. stocks extended gains for the fifth day in a row and surged 5.6% in the week. Indexes advanced after manufacturing index advanced more than expected in June. Eastman Kodak dropped 14% after an adverse patent ruling. Euro-area unemployment was flat near 10% and China manufacturing growth slowed.

[R]4:25 PM New York – U.S. stocks extended gains for the fifth day in a row and surged 5.6% in the week. Indexes advanced after manufacturing index advanced more than expected in June. Eastman Kodak dropped 14% after an adverse patent ruling. Euro-area unemployment was flat near 10% and China manufacturing growth slowed.[/R]

U.S. indexes traded higher for the fifth day in a row. Three widely tracked indexes, the Dow, the Nasadq and the S&P 500 gained more than 1% for the fourth day in the last five trading days. Crude oil and metals gained for the third day as Greece worries eased for now.

Social media gaming company Zygna Inc filed to raise $1 billion in a public offering with the U.S. regulators. Zygna is the sixth high profile Internet company to seek listing following the filings by LinkedIn, Yandex, Bankrate.com and Groupon.

Zygna, the popular social game maker “Farmville” and CityVille” said in its public filing 2010 revenues soared 400% to $597.5 million and net profit of $90.6 million.

Revenues in the first quarter of 2011 increased to $235.4 million and net income surged to $11.8 million. The online game operator attracts 236 million monthly users.

Nortel concluded sales of 6,000 patents to a consortium of six companies for $4.5 billion. Health Management unit agreed to buy Mercy Health Partners for $525 million. Blackboard agreed to go private for $1.64 billion.

Eastman Kodak plunged 14% after the U.S. International Trade Commission said it will reconsider its ruling issued on January in its patent ruling against Research in Motion Ltd and Apple Inc.

Apollo Group third quarter net income increased 17.2%. Blackboard agreed to go private $1.64 billion in cash. Darden reported fourth quarter flat revenues. Marathon Oil completed the spin-off of Marathon Petroleum.

The European indexes rose after the Greek parliament approved privatization plan demanded by foreign lenders. General Mills completed acquisition of Yoplait for $1.2 billion. KBC Group finalized Centea sale for €527 million.

Euro area jobless rate remained flat at 9.9% in May and manufacturing growth slowed in June. French passenger car sales dropped in June. Danish retail sales fell but Italian jobless rate increased to 8.1% in May.

The UK indexes climbed after manufacturing fell to a 21-month low and Irish factory sector growth declined in June. Vodafone agreed to sell its entire 24.4% interest in Polkomtel to Spartan Capital for £815 million.

Australian stocks traded lower after rallying for two days in a row. For the week the benchmark index ASX 200 gained 1.84%. Australian dollar hovered near recent high. Suncorp guided better than expected insurance margin and Downer EDI gained after it delivered first train to NSW government.

Commodities, Bonds and Currencies

The 10-year U.S. bond yield increased to 3.2% and 30-year U.S. bond traded increased to 4.40%.

The U.S. dollar was nearly unchanged at $1.4511 to one euro and gained against the Japanese yen to 80.86 yen.

Immediate delivery futures of Texas crude oil decreased $0.59 to $94.83 a barrel and futures of natural gas decreased 0.05 cents to $4.32 per mbtu and gasoline price increased 0.18 cents to 297.16 cents a gallon.

In metals trading, copper increased 2.8 cents to $4.31 per pound, gold fell $15.80 to $1,487.00 per ounce and silver decreased $1.03 to $33.80.