Stocks on Wall Street Ease, SoftBank Pursues Sprint

Maureen Salinas
11 Oct, 2012
New York City

Crude oil jumped after Turkey forced Air Syria fight with 35 passengers to land in Ankara and claimed it found Russian military equipment and armament. SoftBank is reportedly in discussion with SprintNextel that may lead to a $15 billion deal.

[R]4:45 PM New York – Crude oil jumped after Turkey forced Air Syria fight with 35 passengers to land in Ankara and claimed it found Russian military equipment and armament. SoftBank is reportedly in discussion with SprintNextel that may lead to a $15 billion deal.[/R]

U.S. indexes trimmed early gains after weekly jobless claims unexpectedly decreased and tensions rose in the Middle East after Turkey forced a Syrian airliner jet to land in Ankara and said it confiscated Russian military ammunition.

Market sentiment was positive in the early morning after weekly jobless claims declined to 339,000 last week, sharply lower than 370,000 estimated by several economists.

Crude oil traded higher after tensions in the Middle East rose after Turkey intercepted a Syrian airline jet. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan confirmed in a news report carried by the Turkey’s Anatolian News Agency only hours after Russian Foreign Ministry blamed Turks of violating international law and illegally grounding and searching the plane.

Global markets and commodities gained after Japan based SoftBank was said to be in discussion with SprintNextel Corp as Deutsche Telekom prepares to exit the U.S. wireless industry.

The European indexes gained more than 1% and Spanish debt was downgraded to near junk level. Italian three-year bond yields rise in auction. German consumer prices climbed in September and Greek jobless rate rose to a new record in July.

ING agreed to sell its insurance operations in Malaysia to AIA for €1.3 billion. Glencore completed the purchase of 18.91% ownership interest in Kazzinc. Burberry first-half total revenue rose 6% to £883 million.

Carrefour SA increased 4% in Paris trading after the second largest discount retailer in the world reported third quarter sales that were ahead of expectations.

In Asian markets, South Korea’s KOSPI index decreased 0.8% and traded at a one-month low after the central bank lowered the benchmark 7-day reference rate by 25 basis points to 2.75%.

Commodities, Bonds and Currencies

U.S. treasury yield on 10-year bond decreased to 1.67% and on 30-year bond declined to 2.86%.

The U.S. dollar inched lower to $1.292 to a euro and increased against the Japanese yen to 78.38 yen.

Immediate delivery futures of Texas crude oil increased $1.19 to $92.40 a barrel and Brent crude rose $1.59 to $115.90, futures of natural gas increased 0.14 cents to $3.27 per mbtu and gasoline traded down 1.12 cents to 294.79 cents a gallon.

In metals trading, copper increased 3.15 cents to $3.74 per pound, gold increased $4.30 to $1,769.40 per ounce and silver decreased 7 cents to $34.03.