Friday, 10 July 2015 00:48
LONDON/NEW YORK: World equity markets snapped a five-day sell-off and safe-haven assets such as bonds, the Swiss franc and yen fell on Thursday as Beijing regulators halted a rout in Chinese stocks and Europe revived hopes that Greece could be kept in the euro currency union.
Shares on Wall Street rebounded about 1 percent, having been dragged into the red for the year on Wednesday by China’s market crash, cliff-hanger talks on Greece and a benign yet unsettling glitch on the New York Stock Exchange. On Thursday China’s securities regulator stemmed the slide in local shares by forbidding selling by shareholders with large stakes in listed firms.
“The Chinese market has shown a nice rebound for a day but it is important to note that many of the owners are restricted from selling their shares and half the companies have suspended trading,” said Randy Frederick, managing director of trading and derivatives for Charles Schwab in Austin, Texas.
European shares rallied more than 2 percent as Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras rushed to finalize a package of Greek tax hikes and pension reforms needed to win a new aid lifeline.
Without the money it will have to print another currency, probably leading to its exit from the euro.
Irish Finance Minister Michael Noonan said he saw a better than 50 percent chance of a deal being reached by Sunday’s deadline following a “distinct change of mood” in recent days.
“The realistic proposal from Greece will have to be matched by an equally realistic proposal on debt sustainability from the creditors. Only then will we have a win-win situation,” added European Council President Donald Tusk in Luxembourg.
Hopes of an agreement, which had looked all but doomed a few days ago, as well as more traditional market support from German export data lifted European shares and southern euro zone government bonds rallied. Still, investors were reluctant to make too big a move given past efforts to reach a Greek deal.
The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index rose 2.3 percent to close at 1,511.64, while MSCI’s all-country world index of global equity performance gained 0.94 percent.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 112.97 points, or 0.64 percent, to 17,628.39. The S&P 500 gained 13.48 points, or 0.66 percent, to 2,060.16 and the Nasdaq Composite added 42.81 points, or 0.87 percent, to 4,952.57.
Chinese markets helped boost the global mood as the main stock index rose 6.4 percent, recovering almost as much as it had lost the previous day. The Chinese securities regulator ordered shareholders with stakes of more than 5 percent not to sell for the next six months.
The rebound in China sapped this week’s gains by the Japanese yen, which tends to gain when markets turn risk-averse, and helped boost uneasy commodity markets.
Cautioned stirred by the Federal Reserve’s minutes on Wednesday had weakened the dollar.
The dollar was up 0.5 percent against the yen at 121.30 . The greenback also rose against the Swiss franc, up 0.25 percent at 0.9476 franc.
The euro, meanwhile, was down 0.55 percent against the dollar at $ 1.1014.
Yields on long-term U.S. Treasuries backed away from this week’s five-week lows caused by worries about the Greek debt crisis and rout in Chinese equities.
The benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note was down 23/32 in price to yield 2.2887 percent.
Yields on 10-year German Bunds, the benchmark for euro zone borrowing costs, were up 4 basis points at 0.72 percent
Brent crude rose more than $ 2 a barrel at one point as supportive economic data from Germany, firmer stock markets and strong gasoline demand lifted oil prices.
Brent crude was $ 1.87 higher at $ 58.92 a barrel and front-month U.S. crude futures were up $ 1.33 at $ 53.98 a barrel.
