Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Asia stocks gain on US earnings, Europe ebbs


BEIJING (AP) — Asian stocks rose Monday after U.S. markets gained on stronger corporate profits and China reported a rebound in economic growth in the latest quarter. European markets ebbed.

Oil stayed above $100 after briefly dipping below that level last week for the first time in three months.

Tokyo's Nikkei 225 index rose 0.9 percent to 14,693.57 and China's benchmark Shanghai Composite Index added 1.6 percent to 2,229.24. Hong Kong, Seoul and Sydney also rose.

Those gains came after U.S. stocks rose Friday on unexpectedly strong profits from General Electric Co., Morgan Stanley and other companies. Google surged nearly 14 percent, topping $1,000 a share for the first time.

Investors appeared to put behind them concern over U.S. government finances after political leaders agreed to end a 16-day partial shutdown of official services. Congress agreed Wednesday to fund the government and allow it to borrow through early next year.

"Markets are doing nicely today," said strategist Chris Weston of Australia's IG Markets in a report.

Futures augured slight gains on Wall Street. Dow futures rose 0.1 percent to 15,334 and S&P 500 futures added 0.1 percent to 1,737.70.

Early in Europe, France's CAC-40 shed 0.2 percent to 4,277.04 and Germany's DAX lost 0.1 percent to 8,852.16. Britain's FTSE 100 was little changed at 6,624.94.

In Asia, Hong Kong's Hang Seng was up 0.2 percent to 23,379.80. Seoul gained fractionally to 2,053.1 and Sydney's S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.6 percent to 5,351.80. New Zealand, Singapore and Jakarta also gained.

Investors were also encouraged by China's report Friday that economic growth accelerated to 7.8 percent in the three months ended in September, up from the previous quarter's 7.5 percent.

That was despite warnings by some analysts that other indicators show China's recovery, supported by government spending, might already be running out of steam.

"We expect headwinds on economic growth to strengthen," said Morgan Stanley in a report.

"Growth momentum in domestic demand could ease further," it said. "The lower-than-expected export growth is pointing to a bumpy and fragile external demand recovery."

In currencies, the dollar gained 0.4 percent to 98.04 yen. The euro shed 0.1 percent to $1.3669.

Benchmark crude for November delivery was down 39 cents to $100.42 in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract added 14 cents on Friday to close at $100.81.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/asia-stocks-gain-us-earnings-europe-ebbs-081528603--finance.html
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