Europe Bounces Back

Ivaylo
12 Sep, 2006
New York City

The stocks had briefly slipped into the red on news of a thwarted attack on the US embassy in Syria. The strong performance in the technology sector outweighed concerns over the plummeting oil prices leading the energy sector down. By mid-morning, the FTSE 100 in London was flat, the Xetra Dax in Frankfurt rose 0.2% and the Paris CAC-40 gained 0.2%.

[R]6:30AM European shares rebound led by tech and auto stocks.[/R]
European stocks were higher by mid-morning on Tuesday. The FTSE 100 in London was flat at 5,851.3, the Xetra Dax in Frankfurt rose 0.2% to 5,807.27 and the Paris CAC-40 gained 0.2% to 5,070.66. Telecom Italia announced it would be splitting out two businesses, its network and mobile arms, and hinted that it could move on to sell them both. Telecom Italia was flat. Gaz de France beat expectations with first-half net profit adding 1.6%.

Chipmakers were strong with Infineon up 3.1% and STMicroelectronics advancing 2.45, following a rise by peers in the US on optimism demand growth will be sustained. Electrolux, lead the gainers, climbing 5.7%. Lufthansa, German airline, agreed to pay $85m to settle US class-action lawsuits relating to alleged cargo price-fixing. The company received conditional immunity from antitrust investigators. The stock was down 0.6%.

Oil prices advanced above $66 a barrel in Tuesday on a technical rebound after dropping in the previous session on news that OPEC that it would maintain its 28 million barrel-a-day production target. Light, sweet crude for October delivery gained 59 cents to $66.20 a barrel in electronic trading on the NYME. October Brent on London ICE exchanged hands at $64.92 a barrel, up 37 cents.

The euro rose against the U.S.dollar. .In morning trading the euro bought $1.2713, up from $1.2701 late Monday in New York. The British pound climbed to $1.8681 from $1.8645 the day before, while the dollar rose to purchase 117.63 Japanese yen from 117.51. Gold advanced for the first day in five as the U.S. dollar weakened, boosting the appeal of the precious metal, and after an earlier decline attracted buyers. Gold for immediate delivery in London advanced $6.90, or 1.2%, to $596.65 an ounce at 10:05 a.m.

[R]5:00AM Precious metal fell back Monday as funds liquidated long positions.[/R]
December gold plunged $20 at $597.30 a troy ounce on the NYME. December silver lost $1.055 to $11.24 an ounce. October platinum declined $28.90 to $1,200.60 an ounce, while December palladium shed $17.55 to $316.05 an ounce. Most-active December copper sank 15.05 cents at $3.4175 per pound.

The front-month October crude oil contract ended down 71 cents at $65.54 a barrel, its lowest close since March 28. October unleaded gasoline lost 1.45 cents to $1.5946 a gallon. October heating oil finished down 3.78 cents at $1.8054 a gallon and October natural gas shed 0.5 cents to close at $5.670 per million British thermal units.

On the New York Board of Trade, Arabica coffee futures for December was off 2.40 cents to close at $1.0375 a pound. Futures on raw sugar in foreign ports for October settled down 0.48 cent at 11.41 cents a pound.