Asia Tracks U.S. Rebound

Ivaylo
16 Jun, 2006
New York City

Major U.S. indexes took their biggest single-day gains in more than a year. The rally, in the wake of the absence of hawkish comments in a speech by U.S. Fed chief Ben Bernanke overnight, lifted the Nikkei 225 Stock Average to a third straight day of gains, ending a volatile week with a slight advance. The market is rallying as pessimism about the outlook for the U.S. economy, Japan''s biggest export market, has begun to fade.

[R]7:15AM Asian shares continue their rally for a third straight day.[/R]
Asian markets finished higher. Japan's benchmark Nikkei stock index climbed 2.82%, boosted by broad buying, following a jump on U.S. markets overnight. The Nikkei gained 408.58 points to close at 14879.34. Technology, banks and nonferrous metals shares led the gainers. Elpida Memory jumped 8.3% and Sharp reported a 3.6% gain. Matsushita Electric Industrial climbed 3.5% and Mizuho Financial Group advanced 4.9%. Nonferrous metals also rallied, with Sumitomo Metal Mining adding up 4.6% and Mitsubishi Materials gaining 6.3%. Hong Kong shares finished up, led by large-cap China Mobile, HSBC Holdings and Cnooc, following advances on U.S. markets overnight. The blue-chip Hang Seng Index advanced 407.57 points, or 2.64%, to 15842.65. HSBC advanced 1.7%, China Mobile surged 4.2%. Cnooc, offshore oil producer, jumped 6.3% on news it has the rights to a 51% stake in a deep-water natural gas discovery in the South China Sea. South Korea's Composite Index, or Kopsi, closed up 3.5%. Taiwan's leading index, the Taipex, finished up 2.3%.Chip makers were in focus after strong gains in the U.S semiconductor sub index. South Korea's Samsung Electronics advanced 3.6%, while Hynix Semiconductor jumping 4.2%. In Taiwan, chip maker Taiwan Semiconductor advanced 4.4%.

[R]6:30AM European stocks continue to rebound.[/R]
European stocks traded higher in early session. The FTSE 100 in London advanced 0.6% at 5,654.1, the Xetra Dax in Frankfurt was up 0.8% to 5,464.45, the CAC-40 in Paris gained 0.9% at 4,765.45. On the corporate front, Philips Electronics, the Dutch consumer electronics company, agreed to buy Intermagnetics, a US maker of magnets and imaging tools for hospital imaging equipment, for $1.3 billion in cash. The stock advanced 1.8%. OMV, the Austrian oil and gas group, led the gainers, advancing 6.4%. The oil sector was strong as crude jumped above $70 a barrel, with Neste up 2.3% and Repsol 1.3%. EADS shed 2.2% as the aerospace company’s troubles following the announcement of delays to its A380 superjumbo deepened.

Light, sweet crude oil for July delivery advanced 54 cents to $70.04 a barrel and August Brent crude on London''s ICE Futures exchange gained 45 cents to $68.90 per barrel. Gold bullion opened Friday at a bid price of $582.20 a troy ounce, higher than $574.10 late Thursday. The dollar weakened slightly against the euro. The European currency inched up 0.1% at $1.2655, the British pound added 0.1% against the dollar to $1.8531, while the greenback was trading at 114.72 yen in, down 0.28 yen from late Thursday in New York

[R]5:00AM Gold and precious metal embroiled in broad rally.[/R]
August gold ended up $3.80 to $570.30 a troy ounce on NYME. July silver advanced 23.5 cents to $9.97 an ounce. July platinum put $22 up to $1,160.90 an ounce and September palladium advanced $13.15 to $305.80 an ounce. Copper futures recovered most of the steep losses from earlier in the week. The most-traded contract, for July, gained 15.90 cents to finish at $3.2150 a pound.

The July crude oil closed 36 cents higher at $69.50 a barrel after trading in a range of $69.00 to $70.25 a barrel. July gasoline advanced 0.37 cent to $2.0396 a gallon after rallying to $2.0750 a gallon. On the New York Board of Trade, July Arabica coffee futures closed 0.50 cent up at 96.55 cents a pound and September gained 0.50 cent to 98.95 cents a pound. Futures on raw sugar in foreign ports for July finished up 0.29 cent at 15.00 cents a pound while October advanced 0.28 cent to 15.33 cents a pound.