U.S. Stocks Advance; Warner Chilcott Surges

123jump.com Staff
24 Aug, 2009
New York City

Stocks in the morning trading edged higher after sharp gains in Asia and a rise in European markets. Commodities edged higher with crude oil reaching another intra-day high for the year. Agriculture commodities trade up.

[R]12:10 PM New York – Stocks in the morning trading edged higher after sharp gains in Asia and a rise in European markets. Commodities edged higher with crude oil reaching another intra-day high for the year. Agriculture commodities trade up.[/R]

In the morning stocks advanced on the hopes that the economic recovery is in progress. Commodities prices gained after Asian indexes closed higher and European markets advanced.

Immediate month crude oil future increased to a new intra-day high of $74.22 for the year, wholesale gasoline traded above 200 cents a gallon mark and natural gas edged higher but stayed below $2.85 mBtu.

Copper and gold edged lower but aluminum and silver edged higher and agriculture commodities prices increased.

Immediate month futures of soybean increased 3%, sugar added 0.5% and wheat added 1.7%.

Gainers & Losers

Fannie Mae surged 54 cents or 44.2% to $1.73 and Freddie Mac increased 48 cents or 28% to $2.21.

Commodities linked stocks increased in the morning. Freport-McMoran Copper & Gold increased 2.7% to $66.78 and BHP Billiton added 2.9% to $64.89.

Exxon Mobil increased Corporation increased 2.4% to $71.57 and Conoco Phillips increased 2.2% to $45.20.

Valero Energy surged 4.5% to $19.32 and Tesoro Corp increased 2.2% to $13.74.

Warner Chilcott Plc surged 28% to $20.48 after the company agreed to pay $3.1 billion in cash for global pharmaceutical business of Procter & Gamble & Company. The portfolio of drugs includes ulcerative colitis treatment drug, osteoporosis and prescription products in development and production facilities in Germany and Puerto Rico.

Asian Markets Review

The Nikkei 225 Index in Tokyo closed higher 342.85 or 3.35% to 10,581.05, Hang Seng index in Hong Kong increased 336.92 or 1.67% to 20,535.94 and CSI 300 index in China higher 25.98 or 0.81% to 3,229.60. ASX 200 index in Australia increased 135.50 or 3.16% to 4,426.10. The FTSE Bursa KL Composite index in Malaysia closed higher 10.70 or 0.92% to 1,174.49.

The Kospi Index in South Korea increased 31.24 or 1.98% to close at 1,612.22. SET index in Thailand closed higher 8.57 or 1.33% to 653.20 and JSE Index in Indonesia increased 41.98 or 1.80% to 2,375.87. The Sensex index in India increased 387.92 or 2.55% to 15,628.75.

Europe Markets Review

In London FTSE 100 Index traded higher 33.32 or 0.69% to 4,884.21, in Paris CAC 40 Index increased 26.41 or 0.73% to 3,642.22 and in Frankfurt DAX index traded higher 36.22 or 0.66% to 5,498.96. In Zurich trading SMI increased 36.68 or 0.60% to 6,176.48.