Stock market fixing:
Nikkei 225 +210.37 +1.5% 13,953.73
Topix +17.26 +1.3% 1,360.05
FTSE 100 -8.70 -0.14% 6,211.90
CAC 40 +22.46 +0.45% 4,998.67
Xetra Dax +24.24 +0.34% 7,060.19
DOW -44.13 -0.34% 12,832.18
NASDAQ +6.63 +0.27% 2,495.12
S&P 500 -0.54 -0.04% 1,403.04
10yr Note +1.3400 +0.355% 3.909%
NYMEX Crude Oil +1.57 +1.26% 125.80
Gold -15.30 -1.73% 869.60
Japan's stocks rose the most in a week after forecasts from
companies focused on Asian markets fueled confidence earnings can
withstand a slowdown in the U.S. economy.
Nikon Corp. had its biggest gain in five years, while Fujitsu Ltd.
soared the most in 17 years. Isuzu Motors Ltd. led automakers higher
after saying profit will rise.
Nikon surged 13%, the biggest gain since November 2002, while Tamron
Co., which makes interchangeable camera lenses, added 6.3%. The Topix
Precision Instruments Index had the biggest gain on the benchmark.
Nikon yesterday forecast annual profit will rise to a record for a
fifth-straight year and announced its first share buyback in five years.
European stocks declined as speculation that accelerating
inflation will keep central banks from lowering interest rates dragged
down financial shares, while energy companies dropped on concern oil
demand will slow.
Barclays Plc fell for a fourth day as inflation in the U.K. jumped the
most since 2002, while Alliance & Leicester Plc tumbled on
writedowns. Royal Dutch Shell Plc and StatoilHydro ASA declined as the
International Energy Agency lowered its oil demand forecast.
U.K. consumer prices climbed 3% from a year earlier, compared with 2.5%
in March, the Office for National Statistics said today in London. The
result was the highest in 13 months and exceeded the 2.6% median
prediction of 37 economists.
Alliance & Leicester decreased 10%. The British bank that gets a
quarter of revenue from mortgages and savings announced writedowns of
391 million pounds ($763 million).
Credit Agricole SA dropped 5.6% after France's third-largest bank by
market value said it may raise 5.9 billion euros in a rights offer to
replenish capital as first-quarter profit dropped on subprime-related
writedowns.
U.S. stocks closed mix amid Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S.
Bernanke said financial markets remain ``far from normal,'' home prices
tumbled and the outlook for securities firms' profits worsened. Stocks
slipped modestly Tuesday morning as investors weighed Hewlett-Packard's
nearly $14 billion acquisition of EDS, Wal-Mart's better earnings and
tepid forecast and another record for gas prices.
JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Citigroup Inc. led 28 of 30 banks and
brokerages in the Standard & Poor's 500 Index lower after Bernanke
said financial companies will have to raise more capital. Bank of
America Corp. slipped on a forecast for home- equity loan losses that
was wider than its prediction last month. Hewlett-Packard Co. tumbled
the most since January on its $13.9 billion purchase of Electronic Data
Systems Corp.
Financial shares also retreated after Oppenheimer & Co. analyst
Meredith Whitney reduced earnings estimates for Wall Street's biggest
securities firms. Bank of America dropped. The second- biggest U.S.
lender expects losses to top 2.5% of its $118 billion in loans linked
to home values, Liam McGee, president of the company's consumer and
small business division, said at a conference in New York sponsored by
UBS AG. The bank previously projected a loss rate of between 2% and
2.5%.
Hewlett-Packard dropped. The purchase is the company's largest since
the $18.9 billion takeover of Compaq Computer Corp. and will more than
double its sales from computer services.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's largest retailer, declined as Chief
Executive Officer H. Lee Scott said there are ``uncertainties'' about
the rest of the year.