Stock market fixing:
Nikkei 225 +340.23 +2.60% 13,254.89
Topix +29.56 +2.40% 1,277.27
FTSE +31.60 +0.58%
5,486.10
DAX +42.69 +0.65%
6,561.39
CAC +61.98 +1.41%
4,448.33
Dow +40.30 +0.35%
11,656.07
NASDAQ +28.54 +1.21%
2,378.37
S&P +4.31 +0.34%
1,289.19
10yr Note +0.4100 +0.102%
4.048%
NYMEX Crude Oil -0.59
-0.50% 118.58
Gold -3.10 -0.35% 883.00
Japan's stocks rose the most in two weeks as
falling oil prices lifted expectations production costs will ease and spending
will rebound.
Mazda
Motor Corp. led carmakers to their biggest jump in two weeks, while Bridgestone
Corp., the world's biggest tiremaker, soared the most in four months after oil
sank for a third day. Canon Inc., the world's biggest maker of digital cameras,
jumped on speculation lower energy costs will boost consumer spending power.
Crude
prices, which have risen 64% in the past 12 months and spurred the fastest
inflation in a decade in Japan, lost 1.8% to $119.17 a barrel Tuesday, the
lowest since May 5. Rising costs and weakening demand have dented corporate
profits and caused production, household spending and exports to fall in June.
European stocks rose for a second
day after BNP Paribas SA's earnings beat analysts' estimates, Xstrata Plc
made a hostile bid for Lonmin Plc and the Federal Reserve indicated interest
rates are on hold.
BNP jumped
the most in two weeks after pretax profit at its investment bank eased concern France's
biggest bank will have to raise capital. Lonmin surged 48 percent as Xstrata
offered $9.8 billion for the platinum producer. Daimler AG and Air France-KLM
Group gained as oil fell to a three-month low.
Stocks
pared gains after Freddie Mac, the second-largest U.S. mortgage-finance company,
posted its fourth straight quarterly loss and said it will cut the common-stock
dividend.
Stocks on Wall Street jumped Wednesday, ending a choppy session in positive territory, as investors welcomed falling oil prices, Cisco Systems' improved earnings and talk of a big share buyback plan at Microsoft.
Oil prices: U.S. light
crude oil for September delivery settled 59 cents lower at $118.58 a barrel, a
three-month low. Prices had been even lower after the weekly oil inventories
report showed gas supplies fell more than expected and crude supplies
unexpectedly grew.
Freddie Mac disappoints again: Dragging
on stocks in the morning was a weaker-than-expected second-quarter report from
the troubled mortgage financer. Freddie also slashed its dividend and said it
doubled its reserves for bad loans from the previous quarter. Freddie and its
sister company, Fannie Mae, which together back or hold nearly half of all U.S. mortgage
debt, have lost billions of dollars over the last year due to bad loans. Both
companies' stocks have been pummeled. On Wednesday, Freddie lost over 19% and
Fannie - which reports Friday - fell almost 15%.
Cisco and other results: Giving
the tech sector some support was Cisco, which reported better-than-expected
quarterly sales and earnings late Tuesday, but also lowered its fiscal
first-quarter growth forecast.
AIG
slipped ahead of its quarterly earnings report, due out after the close. The
insurer and Dow component is expected to have earned 63 cents per share versus
a profit of $1.77 per share.
In other news,
Microsoft could buy back up to $20 billion of its stock as a means of boosting
its lagging share price, according to reports that cited a top software analyst
at brokerage UBS. Shares of the Dow component gained 3%.