London (AFP) – Stock markets mostly rose Tuesday, as gold and silver prices rebounded in fresh volatile trading. The dollar steadied while oil prices rose as investors weighed company earnings against geopolitical unrest. The price of gold was up six percent at $4,933.30 an ounce. Last week it reached a record-high close to $5,600 before tumbling. Silver surged 12.7 percent to $86.76 on Tuesday, still well short of the record near $120 it hit last week.
“A sense of calm descended after the precious metal ructions, opening the door for investors to buy on the dip,” noted Richard Hunter, head of markets at Interactive Investor. Hopes for the US economy, boosted by forecast-beating manufacturing data, provided investors a much-needed catalyst for an equities rally Monday on Wall Street. That fed through to Asia, where Tokyo closed with a gain of 3.9 percent on Tuesday. Mumbai’s Nifty index soared almost five percent as investors welcomed President Donald Trump’s announcement of a US-India trade deal. Trump also pledged to cut tariffs on the country’s goods after Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised to stop buying Russian oil over the war in Ukraine.
Wall Street’s main markets opened mostly higher on Tuesday. In Europe, early gains failed to hold and the main indices turned lower. Investors sat tight ahead of interest-rate decisions due Thursday from the European Central Bank and Bank of England.
On the corporate front, Elon Musk’s SpaceX has taken over his artificial intelligence company xAI in a merger aimed at deploying space-based data centres. According to Bloomberg, the combined company would have a valuation of $1.25 trillion. Investors were also keeping an eye on earnings from major companies this week, with particular attention on the tech sector and planned investment in artificial intelligence. Briefing.com analyst Patrick O’Hare said: “Palantir and Teradyne have helped put a bid in the equity futures market by sharing some better-than-expected earnings results and guidance that was tied to AI-related activity.” Shares in Palantir, a data and analytics firm that has extensive ties with the US government, jumped 7.5 percent as trading got under way. Shares in robotics firm Teradyne soared 10 percent.
Shares in Disney fell 1.4 percent after it named Josh D’Amaro, head of its theme parks division, to replace Bob Iger as chief executive when he steps down next month. Traders were also keeping tabs on Washington after Trump urged the House of Representatives to swiftly adopt a spending bill and end a fresh government shutdown. “The latest US government shutdown looks to provide yet another bout of disruption to the economic calendar for traders and investors alike” with jobs data postponed this week, said Joshua Mahony, chief market analyst at Scope Markets.
– Key figures at around 1430 GMT –
New York – Dow: FLAT at 49,412.06 points
New York – S&P 500: UP 0.2 percent at 6,988.75
New York – Nasdaq: UP 0.4 percent at 23,673.69
London – FTSE 100: DOWN 1.0 percent at 10,235.96
Paris – CAC 40: DOWN 0.5 percent at 8,137.13
Frankfurt – DAX: DOWN 0.1 percent at 24,763.99
Tokyo – Nikkei 225: UP 3.9 percent at 54,720.66 (close)
Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: UP 0.2 percent at 26,834.77 (close)
Shanghai – Composite: UP 1.3 percent at 4,067.74 (close)
Euro/dollar: UNCHANGED from Monday at $1.1793
Pound/dollar: UP at $1.3671 from $1.3667
Dollar/yen: UP at 155.97 yen from 155.60 yen
Euro/pound: DOWN at 86.27 pence from 86.29 pence
Brent North Sea Crude: UP 0.8 percent at $66.82 per barrel
West Texas Intermediate: UP 1.0 percent at $62.78 per barrel
© 2024 AFP
