A roundup of trading on major world markets:
NEW YORK – Wall Street has gained with reassuring US retail sales data boosting sentiment, while crude prices rallied from more than 12-year lows.
Banking shares in the United States and Europe spiked.
The Dow Jones Averaged closed 313.66 points, or two per cent, higher at 15,973.84.
The S&P 500 gained 35.70 points, or 1.95 per cent, to 1,864.78 after five days of losses that had dropped it to its lowest level in two years on Thursday.
The Nasdaq rose 70.68 points, or 1.66 per cent, to 4,337.51.
Commerce Department data showing US retail sales excluding vehicles, petrol, building materials and food services increased 0.6 per cent in January also boosted optimism.
“The market has gone from very little chance of recession to pricing in an overwhelming chance of recession despite the data not supporting that,” said Michael Jones, chief investment officer of RiverFront Investment Group in Richmond, Virginia.
“The more numbers you get like retail sales … the more this market can whipsaw people by heading right back up.”
LONDON – Britain’s top share index has ended higher, recording its best one-day percentage gain in more than five months, as banking and commodities-related stocks rebounded from a slump in the previous session.
Aircraft engine-maker Rolls-Royce jumped more than 14 per cent after a well-received update, helping the FTSE 100 index to end 3.1 per cent higher at 5,707.60 points, after falling to its lowest point since late 2012 on Thursday.
The index, however, finished 2.4 per cent lower this week.
The UK mining index surged 8.8 per cent and the oil and gas index gained 5.9 per cent after prices of major industrial metals rose and oil prices rose 10 per cent on prospects for a coordinated production cut, sparked by comments from the energy minister of the United Arab Emirates.
“Strong gains in oil provides a timely boost to what has been a rather gloomy week,” said Craig Erlam, a senior analyst at OANDA. “But I’m not convinced at this stage that this is anything more than a dead cat bounce.”
Shares in Anglo American, BHP Billiton, Glencore, Rio Tinto, Royal Dutch Shell and BP rose 5.8 to 18.4 per cent.
HONG KONG – Relative calm returned to world markets on Friday after a hurricane-force week that gave the dollar/yen its biggest smashing since 2008, wiped billions off share prices and saw a stampede into top-rated government bonds and gold.
Japan’s Nikkei fell 5.4 per cent, having been shut during Thursday’s global rout, so there was relief as the US dollar and the yen steadied and London and Europe’s other main stock markets rose almost two per cent.
The dollar was gradually clawing back some of the four per cent it has lost to the yen this week, settling currency markets.
Oil prices climbed off 12-year lows too and safe-haven gold, on for its best week in four years, and US and German government bonds all cooled after their sizzling last few days.
“All the market has been shattered,” said ABN Amro chief investment officer Didier Duret.
“It has been driven by a lot of speculation. The strength of the yen has created discomfort too, but this is short-term,” he added, saying the Bank of Japan could intervene in FX markets and that data in coming weeks should ease global recession worries.
WELLINGTON – The S&P/NZX 50 Index dropped 53.05 points, or 0.9 per cent, to 5,933.97.
