Forex News – Earnings Fuel Optimism in Markets, but Equity Indexes Trim Gains after... |
Earnings seem to be the driving force for optimism among investors, where better than expected earnings from Google Inc and Citigroup Inc fueled cheers in markets, as equity markets in the United States rose by opening on Friday, despite the worse than expected economic fundamentals that were released from the United States.
Both Google Inc and Citigroup Inc followed the lead of JPMorgan Chase & Co in announcing better than expected revenues and net income in the second fiscal quarter of 2011, which boosted confidence in stock markets and pushed indexes higher, although indexes trimmed gains after the worse than expected University of Michigan confidence index.
On the other hand, data from the United States signaled more weakness, where the consumer price index released on Friday confirmed Thursday’s PPI, which showed that inflation eased in June as energy prices dropped, while the empire manufacturing index showed an ongoing contraction in July.
Moreover, the industrial production index rose below expectations, while the University of Michigan released the consumer confidence preliminary estimate for July to show that confidence dropped to 63.8, the lowest level since March 2009.
Stocks in the United States extended the gains by opening on Friday, where the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up by nearly 0.10% to trade around 12,450, while the S&P 500 index was up by nearly 0.25% to trade around 1312. European stock indexes were lower before closing on Friday ahead of the results of European banks’ stress tests, where FTSE 100 was down by nearly 0.20% to trade at 5835 and the DAX was lower by nearly 0.06% to trade around 7210.
The U.S. dollar inclined against a basket of major currencies on Friday, where the U.S. dollar index was trading at 75.32, compared with the opening level at 75.12. The Euro fell against the Dollar, where the EUR/USD pair traded at $1.4107, compared with the opening level at $1.4162, and the British Pound also fell against the Dollar, where the GBP/USD pair traded at $1.6105, down from the opening level at $1.6153.
Gold prices were little changed on Friday after rising to a new all-time record high on Thursday at $1594.27 an ounce, where gold traded around $1587 an ounce, and crude oil prices rose to trade around $97 a barrel.
Originally posted here.
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