ASIA
Japanese and mainland Chinese stocks rebounded from a
string of losses Tuesday, with a weakened yen lifting exporters in
Tokyo, while Australian shares climbed after the central bank governor
hinted at further interest rate cuts.
Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average jumped 1.5%, snapping a
four-day losing streak that pulled the benchmark to its lowest level in
more than a month on Monday.
South Korea’s Kospi ended 0.9% higher and the Shanghai Composite rose 0.7%, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index gained 0.5%.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 overcame early losses to
end little changed, and the local currency tumbled after a speech by
Reserve Bank of Australia Gov. Glenn Stevens. Stevens said recent data
don’t appear to shift the central bank’s assessment that the inflation
outlook left some scope to ease its policy further, if needed.
Most banks erased losses in Sydney after Gov. Stevens’s
speech, with National Australia Bank Ltd. and Westpac Banking Corp.
rising 0.1% each, while Commonwealth Bank of Australia rose 0.2%.
Shares of Woolworths Ltd. dropped 1.6% after the retailer reported only a modest sales growth in the fiscal fourth quarter.
Shares of Tata Motors Ltd. fell 1.5% and aluminum
producer Hindalco Industries Ltd. gave up 4.5%, while ICICI Bank Ltd.
inched up 0.7%.
In Japan, a weakened yen provided a lift to shares of some
exporters after recent heavy losses. Shares of Isuzu Motors Ltd. added
5% and Kobe Steel Ltd. jumped 6.9%.
Sony Corp. climbed 2.9% ahead of its earning results due on Thursday.
Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. ended 0.9% higher after its quarterly profit more than doubled.
On the downside, shares of Hitachi Construction Machinery Co. dropped 3% after its results fell short of expectations.
Official data released earlier Tuesday showed Japan’s
industrial production unexpectedly fell a seasonally adjusted 3.3% in
June from the level in May. Japanese household spending also declined,
though the monthly unemployment rate eased to 3.9% from 4.1%.
The advance in Chinese equities was driven by gains in the
beaten-down property sector. Shares of Gemdale Corp. jumped 3% and Poly
Real Estate Group Co. added 1.9% in Shanghai, the yuan-denominated A
shares of China Vanke Co. gained 1.2% in Shenzhen, and China Resources
Land Ltd. rose 1.5% in Hong Kong.
EUROPE
European stocks advanced as investors weighed corporate
earnings from Electricite de France SA to Barclays Plc and the Federal
Reserve began a two-day policy meeting.
The Stoxx Europe 600 Index added 0.2% to 299.55. The gauge
has rallied 5.1% in July, heading for the biggest gain since October
2011, as the Fed said it remains flexible on the pace of asset
purchases. The U.S. central bank starts a two-day meeting today and the
European Central Bank and the Bank of England announce policy decisions
on Thursday.
National benchmark indexes advanced in 15 of the 18 western European markets today:
EDF, Europe’s biggest power generator, and Alcatel-Lucent
(ALU) SA, a French maker of phone equipment, jumped more than 6% as
profit beat analysts’ estimates. Barclays sank 6,2%, the most in 13
months after announcing a rights offering and saying income fell. K+S
AG, Europe’s largest potash producer, plunged 24% as OAO Uralkali
predicted prices for the fertilizer ingredient will fall.
ITV Plc surged 6.7%, the highest price since the owner of
the U.K.’s biggest commercial TV station started trading in February
2004, after reporting first-half sales of 1.31 billion pounds ($2
billion). That beat the 1.15 billion-pound average analyst forecast.
USA
U.S. stocks were little changed, erasing earlier gains, as
investors analyzed corporate earnings and awaited results from the
Federal Reserve’s two-day policy meeting.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index added less than 0.1% to
1,685.76, after gaining as much as 0.5% earlier. The Dow Jones
Industrial Average lost 11.48 points, or 0.1%, to 15,510.49 today.
The S&P 500 is heading for a 4.9% advance this month,
its biggest gain since January, as companies from Facebook Inc. to Visa
Inc. reported better-than-estimated earnings.
The Federal Open Market Committee, which has said it may
start paring stimulus should the U.S. economy meet the central bank’s
forecasts, started a two-day meeting today. The Fed will probably
maintain its benchmark interest rate at 0.25%, economists predict.
Policy makers will begin to reduce the central bank’s bond-purchase
program in September, a Bloomberg survey of economists shows.
Home prices rose in May by the most in more than seven
years as the recovery in U.S. residential real estate gained momentum, a
report showed today. The S&P/Case-Shiller index of property values
climbed 12.2% from May 2012, after advancing 12.1% a month earlier. The
median projection of economists called for a 12.4% advance.
The Conference Board’s index of U.S. consumer confidence
decreased to 80.3 in July from 82.1 a month earlier, data from the New
York-based private research group showed. Investors will get further
clues to the state of the economy later this week with the release of
data on U.S. gross domestic product and the monthly labor report.
Mosaic Co. and Agrium Inc. plunged at least 5.4%after OAO
Uralkali ended limits on potash production and said the price of the the
soil nutrient may fall about 25%. Coach Inc. lost 8.3% as discounts and
weak handbag sales hurt revenue in North America. Eastman Chemical Co.
and Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. jumped more than 0.7% as earnings
topped estimates.
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