World stocks rise with commodities, metals, dollar
Dion Rabouin August 22, 2017
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Stocks around the globe headed upward on Tuesday, with European bourses breaking a three-day losing streak, boosted by rising commodity and metals prices and U.S. stocks underpinned by bargain hunting.
London copper CMCU3 rose to a three-year high, zinc CMZN3 held close to its highest in a decade and nickel CMNI3 reached a 2017 high as mostly technical signals prompted speculators and funds to pour more cash into base metals.
“There’s nothing really fundamental to drive things onwards from here, so I think it’s a bit of misplaced euphoria and trend-following buyers jumping on the bandwagon,” said Robin Bhar, head of metals research at Societe Generale in London.
“Admittedly, the charts have seen some good upside breaks on copper, zinc and aluminum, but I think things are slightly over-extended here so there should be correction to where we broke out – around $6,500 on copper and just below $3,000 on zinc.”
The gain in metals helped boost mining shares, propelling a broad index of European stocks up 0.85 percent on the day.
BHP Billiton (BHP.AX), the world’s largest mining company, reported a surge in underlying full-year profits and said it would exit its underperforming U.S. shale oil and gas business, pleasing shareholders who had called for a sale.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 137.26 points, or 0.63 percent, to 21,841.01, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 16.65 points, or 0.69 percent, to 2,445.02 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added 61.80 points, or 0.99 percent, to 6,274.93.
MSCI’s metric of stocks around the world .MIWD00000PUS rose 0.45 percent.
Emerging markets shares gained 0.75 percent, continuing their outperformance this year. MSCI’s EM stock index tracker .MSCIEF has risen more than 23 percent year to date.
Chinese stocks have helped propel the rally in emerging markets and on Tuesday China’s Shanghai SE Composite .SSEC, Shenzhen .CSI300 and Hang Seng .HSI indexes all closed higher.
Japan’s Nikkei .N225 index edged lower, its fifth straight day in the red amid lingering tensions on the Korean peninsula.
Meanwhile, the euro EUR= fell against the dollar, giving back most of its overnight gains after data showed German investor optimism dipped for the third straight month. The yen JPY= fell from a four-month peak while the British pound GBP= hit an eight-week low against the greenback.
“The U.S. dollar notched across the board gains, casting aside for now the burdensome baggage of political uncertainty and skepticism in another U.S. interest rate hike this year,” said Joe Manimbo, senior market analyst at Western Union Business Solutions, in a note to clients.
Investors may also be looking to square positions before a global central bank conference this week in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, he said.
Tepid U.S. inflation data have made it less likely the Federal Reserve will raise U.S. interest rates anytime soon, weakening the dollar. So have doubts that Trump can implement the stimulus programs and tax reforms he promised as a candidate.
The dollar index, which tracks the U.S. currency against six rivals, was up 0.45 percent to 93.498 .DXY.
Benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury yields fell 6/32 in price, surrendering a safe-haven rally that had been backed by political discord in Washington as investors squared positions ahead of the Jackson Hole meeting.
Elsewhere, crude oil prices rose, lifted by indications that supply is gradually tightening, especially in the United States <O/R>. Brent crude futures LCOc1 added 34 cents to $52 per barrel.
Reporting by Dion Rabouin; Additional reporting by Eric Onstad and Abhinav Ramnarayan in London; Editing by Larry King and Nick Zieminski
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