While you were sleeping: Oil jumps, Philips posts profit, Wall St awaits earnings

Tuesday 13th October 2009

Crude oil jumped almost 2%, helped by optimism about global economic growth and speculation colder weather across the US will lift demand for fuel.

US crude gained US$1.35 to US$73.10 a barrel and earlier reached as much as US$73.84, the highest since August 25. Helping lift oil, the US dollar weakened ahead of bank profit reports for the third quarter, a period in which companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 are expected to show their ninth period of declining earnings.

Copper gained on optimism China will continue to suck up global supplies of the metal used to make pipes and wires. Copper futures for December delivery rose or 0.7% to US$2.857 a pound on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Royal Philips Electronics, Europe’s largest consumer-electronics company, reported a profit for the third quarter, surprising analysts who had forecast a loss.

Earnings in the third quarter more-than tripled to 174 million euros), or 19 cents a share, from 57 million euros, or 6 cents, a year earlier. Analysts had forecast a loss of 44.7 million euros, according to a Bloomberg survey.

Shares of Philips jumped 7.7%, leading gains in Europe’s Dow Jones Stoxx 600 Index and helping bolster confidence about the strength of corporate profits. The Stoxx 600 climbed 0.7% to 244.34.Alcatel-Lucent gained 5.1% after Societe Generale lifted its recommendation to 'hold' from 'sell'.

Lloyds Banking Group dropped 2.5% after Reuters reported the lender had lined up six investment banks to manage a rights issue of more than 10 billion pounds to reduce its reliance on government funding. Barclays slid 1.2% after the Financial Times said it plans to spin off its credit assets into a separate unit.

Among regional benchmarks in Europe, The UK’s FTSE 100 rose 0.9% to 5210.17, Germany’s DAX 30 gained 1.3% to 5783.23 and France’s CAC 40 rose 1.2% to 3845.80.

Stocks on Wall Street were mixed in light trading as some investors took a holiday for Columbus Day, which shuttered government offices and delayed economic releases.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.1% to 9877.65 and the Standard & Poor’s 500 rose 0.3% to 1075.38.

Among key earnings due this week, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs Group, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Google and General Electric are scheduled to report.

The US dollar and the yen weakened against the euro after the earnings report from Philips stoked investors risk appetite and some traders bet the earnings season will exceed expectations.

The dollar fell 0.3% to $1.4777 per euro and the yen weakened 0.4% to 132.81 per euro. The greenback was little changed at 89.87 per dollar.

Businesswire.co.nz

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