Stocks staged a dramatic one-hour rebound in late afternoon trading on Wall Street, stemming a global slump in equities.The session began with mounting fears about Europe's sovereign debt woes, which had sent stocks tumbling in Europe and Asia.The last ti
Stocks staged a dramatic one-hour rebound in late afternoon trading on Wall Street, stemming a global slump in equities.
The session began with mounting fears about Europe's sovereign debt woes, which had sent stocks tumbling in Europe and Asia.
The last time the market was roiled by global worries was in late November, when Dubai struggled to service its debt. But the concerns that have swirled this week regarding the financing of governments in Greece, Portugal, and Spain have already exacted a much heavier toll,
Meanwhile, economic data in the US included some pleasant surprises, including a better-than-expected reading of the unemployment rate, which has fallen to 9.7%, and a much smaller drop in consumer credit in December than expected.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 167 points in the last hour, erasing its losses and posting 10.05-point gain, or 0.1%, to close at 10,012.23.
The advance was led by Cisco, Intel and Alcoa, all of which gained more than 2%. The Dow's weekly loss was 55.10 points.
Other stock averages also finished in the black. The S&P 500 was 0.3% up at 1066.19 while the Nasdaq Composite was 0.7% higher at 2141.72.
Other markets
Canadian stocks rebounded to rise for the first time in three days, boosted by a 7.3% gain by Goldcorp as gold prices rose in late trading.
The S&P/TSX index rose 94.36 points, or 0.9%, to 11,223.12, a 1.2% gain for the week.
European financial markets slumped for a second day Friday on mounting concerns about Europe's weaker economies.
Blue-chip stock indexes in Spain and Greece ended down 1.4% and 3.7%, respectively, while Portugal's PSI-20 index lost 1.5%.
The pan-European Dow Jones Stoxx 600 Index dropped 2.2% to 237.46, its lowest close since November 3, after losing 2.7% on Thursday. It is now down 6.2% this year.
The UK's FTSE 100 Index fell 1.5% to 5060.92, while the French CAC-40 Index was Western Europe's biggest decliner, losing 3.4% to 3563.76. That was the index's biggest one-day drop since November 26.
Germany’s DAX fell 1.8% to 5434.34.
Asian equity markets tumbled earlier in the worldwide slump triggered by Wall Street’s big drop on Thursday.
Japan's Nikkei Stock Average of 225 companies fell 2.9% – its biggest percentage drop in more than two months – closing barely above the psychologically-key 10,000-point level, at 10,057.09.
Exporters fell sharply, with Mazda Motor dropping 4.9% and Nintendo falling 4.2%, while Nissan Motor lost 3.9%. Sony bucked the market, rising 0.3% after posting better-than-expected results for the fiscal third quarter.
Toyota Motor added 1.1% despite concerns it may have to extend its vehicle recall to its popular Prius hybrid model. Shares were boosted by its announcement that it swung into the black in the quarter ended December and now expects to post a profit for the full year.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index tumbled 3.3% to 19,665.08 – its first finish below the 20000-point level since September.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 shed 2.3% to 4514.1, South Korea's Kospi lost 3% to 1567.12, Taiwan's Taiex sank 4.3% to 7217.83 and China's Shanghai Composite fell 1.9% to 2939.40.
Commodities: Oil, gold down
Crude-oil futures fell sharply around after breaking through a key support level. This spurred losses for other commodities, such as copper, and gave a boost to the US dollar.
Copper was down 6.3% to a three-month low and has fallen 15% this year.
Crude futures, which had been little-changed after the release of US jobs data, fell below their January low of $US72.43, which triggered further selling that pushed the benchmark March contract below $US70 for the first time since mid December.
It later recovered tp settle $1.95, or 2.7%, lower at $71.19. Brent oil futures were down 3.8% at $US69.36.
Gold futures extended three-month lows. The most-active April gold contract rose near the end of the session to settle $10.20 down, or 1.0%, at $US1052.80 an ounce in New York. It had dipped to $US1044.50, the contract's lowest point since October 30.
Currencies: Euro, down, dollar up
The euro fell to a near 12-month low against the yen and the dollar.
The euro was at $US1.3665 from $US1.3741. The dollar was at ¥89.38 from ¥88.93, while the euro was at ¥121.14 from Y122.20.
The UK pound was at $US1.5631 from $US1.5753.
Canada's dollar rose against all its main trading currencies – 0.5% against the US dollar to $c1.0689 and up 0.8% against the yen to ¥83.56.
