S&P 500 and DAX Extend Weekly Rise Above 3%

Nichole Harper
20 Nov, 2015
New York City

S&P 500 index extended weekly gains to 3.4% and the widely followed measure is set to register best weekly gains in a year. Nike set the pace for the market gains in New York and ABN Amro was relisted in Amsterdam.

[R][1:30 PM New York City, New York – S&P 500 index extended weekly gains to 3.4% and the widely followed measure is set to register best weekly gains in a year. Nike set the pace for the market gains in New York and ABN Amro was relisted in Amsterdam.[/R]

Stocks in New York traded higher and the S&P 500 index is set to extend its weekly gains to the best in the year so far.

Market indexes in New York and Europe soared more than 3.3% as investors focused on the health of the U.S. economy and Fed officials kept building the rate hike scenario.

On Wall Street, Tollbooth Strategy Index jumped 85.35 or 0.8% to 11,022.60.

S&P 500 index rose 10.58 or 0.5% to 2,091.81 and the Nasdaq Composite Index added 32.51 or 0.6% to 5,106.14.

Crude oil in New York slid 38 cents to $40.16 a barrel and gold fell $4.45 to $1,077.76 an ounce.

U.S. Movers

The Gap, Inc ((GPS)) advanced 6.1% or $1.53 to $26.61 after the apparel, accessories, and personal care products retailer reported total sales in the third-quarter ending in October dropped 3% from a year ago to $3.86 billion.

Comparable store sales in the quarter slipped 2%.

Net income in the quarter plunged 29.3% to $248 million or 61 cents per diluted share compared to $351 million or 80 cents per share from the same quarter last year.

Nike, Inc ((NKE)) jumped 4.8% or $5.97 to $131.75 after the athletic footwear, apparel, equipment maker announced today that its board of directors approved a new four-year, $12 billion program to repurchase shares of Class B Common Stock.

The company anticipates that the current $8 billion share repurchase program will be completed before the end of fiscal 2016.

As of November 16, the company had an approx 678 million shares of Class B Common Stock outstanding.

Nike said since last 14 years, it had returned more than $23 billion to shareholders through share repurchases and dividends.

Separately, the board of directors approved the two-for-one split of both NIKE’s Class A and Class B common shares.

The stock split will be in the form of a 100 percent stock dividend payable on December 23, 2015 to shareholders of record at the close of business December 9, 2015.

Upon completion of split, the outstanding shares of Class A and Class B common stock will increase to approx 353 million and 1.36 billion respectively likely to begin trading on December 24.

European Markets

European bourses were slightly higher on Friday as investors welcomed the IPO of ABN AMRO and Oerlikon’s division sale, but remained wary of the effect of terrorist attacks on the travel and leisure industries.

In the preliminary estimate in the wider region of EU28, seasonally adjusted external current account surplus widened to €15.9 billion in September compared to a surplus of €13.8 billion in August and a surplus of €10.9 billion in a year ago month, the eurostat said.

The President of the European Central Bank Mario Draghi once again confirmed that ECB is ready to take action if inflation in the euro zone remains too low.

“If we decide that the current trajectory of our policy is not sufficient to achieve our objective, we will do what we must to raise inflation as quickly as possible.” said Mario Draghi in a speech at the Frankfurt European Banking Congress.

In London trading, FTSE 100 index rose 19.08 or 0.3% to 6,349.01 and in Frankfurt the DAX index gained 43.48 or 0.4% to 11,129.06.

In Paris, CAC 40 index added 10.45 or 0.2% to 4,919.32.

For the week, FTSE 100 index jumped 3.8% and the DAX index soared 3.9% and the CAC 40 index increased 2.3%.

Oerlikon soared 5.97% to 10.65 Swiss francs after the engineering group announced the sale of its vacuum business to Sweden’s Atlas Copco, an industrial equipment company, for 525 million Swiss francs.

The deal, which also includes debt, comes after several assets sales by Oerlikon, as the Swiss engineering group is streamlining operations and focusing on markets with highest growth potential.

ABN AMRO Group NV jumped 3.5% to €18.37 on its first day of trading in Amsterdam in seven years.

The initial public offering of 188 million shares was priced at €17.75 per share.

The bank was nationalized in 2008, during the financial crisis, and the Dutch government spent more than €20 billion to save the financial institution.

The Dutch government sold 20% of the bank and raised €3.3 billion and to partially recoup the billions spent on bailing out ABN AMRO.

The Netherlands intends to sell additional 3% in an over-allotment option and to divest more in the next couple of years.

Asian Markets

The Bank of Japan said in its monthly report that the economy is expected to recover moderately and affirmed that for the time being exports and industrial production growth are expected to remain nearly flat but are expected to increase in the near future.

In corporate news, Lawson, the convenience store retailer plans to enter into banking business and Sharp, the troubled maker of electronics plans to close its remaining overseas television units.

The Nikkei 225 Stock Average rose 20 to 19,879.81 and the broader Topix index added 2.80 to 1,603.18.

For the week, Nikkei 225 increased 1.4%.

The yen weakened to 123.14 against a dollar.

Lawson Inc gained 0.6% to 9,580 yen after the convenience stores operator is in talk with the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ and plans to enter into banking business, using the network of more than 12,000 stores throughout the country.

Stocks in Mumbai traded higher at the opening but lost momentum in the afternoon and trimmed gains of the day.

Rupee edged up 1 paisa to 66.17 against one U.S. dollar.

The Sensex Index rose 26.57 to close at 25,868.49. The CNX Nifty added 13.18 to 7,856.55.

For the week, Sensex Index increased 1% and CNX Nifty gained 1.2%.

Canara Bank plans to raise ₹2,400 crore via bond offering. Indian Financial Technologies sold its remaining 5% stake in Indian Energy Exchange.