Dow jumps 200 as oil soars 11%; banks gain

歐美股市反彈, 因為油價做好, 金銀價偏軟, 但又跌唔多 !

finance.yahoo.com

By Fred Imbert 

U.S. equities traded higher on Friday as European bank stocks — as well as oil prices — bounced sharply, while investors digested U.S. economic data.

Shares of Deutsche Bank rose nearly 9.5 percent after the bank said it was buying back over $5 billion in bonds, while Commerzbank's stock gained about 15.5 percent amid a strong earnings report.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index rose 2.25 percent.

"Let's hope we can hold on to a bid higher, especially heading into a long weekend with the specter of China looming," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at Wunderlich Securities.

Markets in mainland China have been closed this week due to the Lunar New Year Holiday and are scheduled to reopen Monday. However, U.S. markets will be closed on Monday due to the President's Day holiday.

The Dow Jones industrial average jumped 200 points in late-morning trading, as Goldman Sachs (GS) and JPMorgan Chase (JPM) contributed the most gains.

"I definitely urge caution, but the conditions are there for a short-term bounce," said Adam Sarhan, CEO of Sarhan Capital.

The blue chips index was also on track to lose about 2 percent for the week.

The S&P 500 index gained 1 percent, as financials rose 3 percent. The financial sector, however, was on track for a 3 percent weekly loss.

The Nasdaq composite rose 1.2 percent, but was on pace to fall about 1 percent week to date.

"We're going to need a lot more than this to gain some ground," said Randy Warren, chief investment officer at Warren Financial Service. "I wouldn't get my hopes up but oil has to hit bottom at some point."

U.S. oil prices also boosted stock prices in the U.S., as WTI (New York Mercantile Exchange: @CL.1) gained 10.95 percent, or $2.83, to trade at $29.04 a barrel.

"The proposed deal for a cease-fire in Syria might hep bring the Saudis to the table for an OPEC deal," said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at First Standard Financial. "I believe one of the reasons oil prices are so low is geopolitical."

WTI settled 4.5 percent lower on Thursday, but began paring most of those losses after a report surfaced that OPEC was ready to cooperate with a production cut.

U.S. equities fell sharply Thursday amid a global sell-off, with the Dow falling more than 250 points.

Investors also digested U.S. retail sales, which rose 0.2 percent in January, above the 0.1 percent expected gain. Import prices in the U.S. fell 1.1 percent, less than expected.

"Bottom line, notwithstanding a pretty ugly month in the markets, the prospect of better wage growth seemed to help lift retail sales after a disappointing December. I'm not going to say lower gasoline prices was the reason for better than expected sales because if it hasn't been a lift so far because of a variety of cost of living offsets, why should it all of sudden been one in January," Peter Boockvar, chief market analyst at The Lindsey Group, said in a note.

"If you take a look at the jobs data and retail sales, there are few signs that the U.S. economy is heading into a recession," Wunderlich's Hogan said.

Other data points due Friday included consumer sentiment, which came in below expectations, and business inventories, which rose 0.1 percent in December.

U.S. Treasury yields rose on Friday, with the 10-year yield trading at 1.73 percent, after briefly falling below the 1.55 percent mark on Thursday.

"You don't see that kind of move normally," Hogan said. "That's indicative of some of that flight-to-safetly money coming back into risk assets."

Other traditional safe havens fell on Friday, including gold, which gained more than $50 on Thursday. Gold futures for April delivery fell $12.20 to trade at $1,235.40 an ounce Friday.

The dollar gained 0.8 percent against the euro and 0.6 percent against the yen.

Investors also digested comments from New York Fed President William Dudley, in which he said the key components of the U.S.economy remain healthy. He also said that any talk about negative interest rates coming to the U.S. is "extraordinarily premature."

The Dow Jones industrial average (Dow Jones Global Indexes: .DJI) traded 242 points higher, or 1.5 percent, at 15,903, with JPMorgan Chase leading advancers and Merck the greatest laggard.

 

The S&P 500 (^GSPC) gained 28 points, or 1.5 percent, to trade at 1,846, as financials led nine sectors higher and utilities lagged.

The Nasdaq (^IXIC) rose 25 points, or 0.6 percent, to 4,292.

Advancers led decliners 4 to 1 on the New York Stock Exchange, with an exchange volume of 260 million and a composite volume of 1.084 billion as of 10:41 a.m. ET.

 
The CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) (^VIX), widely considered the best gauge of fear in the market, traded near 26.5.