A roundup of trading on major world markets:
NEW YORK – US stocks closed higher on Friday in their fifth straight day of gains, despite a meeting of euro zone finance ministers that scuttled hopes for strong action on Europe’s debt crisis.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rallied 75.91 points (0.66 per cent) to close at 11,509.09.
The broader S&P 500 rose 6.90 points (0.57 per cent) to 1,216.01, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite climbed 15.24 points (0.58 per cent) to close at 2,622.31.
Canada’s Research in Motion (RIM) weighed down the Nasdaq, plummeting 19 per cent after it reported sales and profits that fell short of analysts’ expectations.
The news confirmed fears that RIM’s BlackBerry devices are losing ground to Apple’s iPhones and Google’s Android smartphones.
At a meeting in Poland, the euro zone’s finance ministers decided to delay an eight-billion-euro ($A10.8 billion) bailout loan for Greece until they had firmer evidence of Athens’s willingness to cut its deficit.
In another sign of friction, US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, who was also attending the meeting, disagreed with his German counterpart Wolfgang Schaeuble over Europe’s handling of the debt crisis.
Bond prices rose slightly. The 10-year Treasury bond yield slipped to 2.08 per cent from 2.09 per cent late on Thursday, while the 30-year bond ticked down to 3.34 per cent from 3.35 per cent.
Bond prices and yields move in opposite directions.
LONDON – European stocks ended mixed and the euro slid after the EU delayed a decision on releasing critical rescue funds to Greece despite a US warning that dithering puts the global financial system at risk.
London’s FTSE-100 index of leading shares rose 0.58 per cent to 5368.41 points, while Frankfurt’s DAX climbed 1.18 per cent to 5573.51 points.
Paris’s CAC-40 slid 0.48 per cent to 3031.08 points.
The euro dropped to $US1.3784 from $US1.3882 late in New York on Thursday, when it soared above $US1.39 following surprise central bank action to ease dollar liquidity problems on the market increasingly concerned about an aggravation of the eurozone debt crisis.
The dollar rose to 76.89 yen from 76.66 yen on Thursday.
While markets had been looking for signs that European leaders were making progress on how to deal with Greece and the risks a default poses to the eurozone financial system, most equities rose nevertheless on the central bank action.
A meeting of eurozone finance ministers in Wroclaw, Poland, decided on Friday to delay until October a decision on eight billion euros ($A10.8 billion) of bailout loans blocked until Greece has convinced auditors it is on track to cut its deficit.
In a sign of the rising concern about the eurozone debt crisis, the Wroclaw talks were exceptionally attended by US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.
Geithner urged Europe to increase the size of its 440 billion euro ($A594.11 billion) European Financial Stability Facility for troubled member states and take more action to shore up the financial and banking sector.
The ECB has also called on eurozone states to use a beefed-up EFSF to relieve it of its reluctant interventions in secondary bond markets to ease lending rates to under-pressure eurozone states.
HONG KONG – Asia-Pacific stock markets extended a global rally after the world’s most powerful central banks offered to inject US dollars into lenders squeezed by the eurozone debt crisis.
The European Central Bank and its US, Japanese, Swiss and British counterparts announced on Thursday they would act in concert to lend US dollars to banks facing a shortage of the American currency.
Japan’s Nikkei jumped 2.25 per cent, or 195.30 points, to close at 8,864.16.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index closed 273.81 points (1.43 per cent) higher at 19,455.31.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 rallied 1.91 per cent, or 77.7 points, to end at 4,149.4, while the broader All Ordinaries closed up 1.85 per cent.
South Korea’s benchmark KOSPI index soared 3.72 per cent, or 66.02 points, to 1,840.10.
Shanghai’s composite index gained 0.13 per cent, or 3.29 points to 2,482.34.
The euro was fetching $1.3805 in late afternoon Asian trade, compared with $1.3882 late Thursday in New York where the common European currency jumped after the move to aid Europe’s struggling banks.
The euro also stood at 105.90 yen from 106.40 yen in New York.
In Asia on Thursday the common currency had been sitting at $1.3720 and 105.20 yen, while on Monday it was foundering at around $1.3500 and a 10-year low below 104 yen.
The dollar bought 76.70 yen, slightly firmer than 76.66 in New York Thursday.
Singapore rose 0.83 per cent, or 23.09 points, to close at 2,789.04.
WELLINGTON – Wellington closed 0.62 per cent, or 20.18 points, higher at 3,292.68.
