GLOBAL MARKETS-Stocks tumble on Egypt unrest, oil jumps

Fri Jan 28, 2011 5:09pm EST
* Stocks hit as Middle East unrest feared
* Oil gets boost, Treasuries and gold too
* Dollar, Swiss franc benefit from flight to safety (Updates with
U.S. markets close)
By Al Yoon

NEW YORK, Jan 28 (Reuters) - Stock markets around the world
slumped, crude oil prices surged and the dollar gained on
Friday as images of escalating violence and chaos in Egypt
gripped investors and raised concerns the protests will spread
across the Middle East.

Money managers, who in recent months had been accelerating
moves into riskier assets, dumped stocks and piled into
safe-haven investments like U.S. Treasuries, the dollar and
gold as non-stop media coverage of skirmishes between
protesters and Egyptian police overwhelmed all other news.
Wall Street's benchmark S&P 500 index suffered its biggest
one-day loss in six months.

Some said the sudden eruption of violence could spur a
longer-term sell-off after a strong rally in riskier assets
like stocks and emerging markets.

"I think the next two to three weeks, the crisis in Egypt
and potentially across the Middle East might be an excuse for a
big sell-off of 5 percent to 10 percent," Keith Wirtz,
president and chief investment officer at Fifth Third Asset
Management in Cincinnati.

Traders and investors fear the protests could spread across
the oil-rich region and lead to disruptions to Middle East
commerce. Global political pressure could also heat up because
of the security threat posed to Israel by deepening instability
to a key regional ally.

READ MORE - GLOBAL MARKETS-Stocks tumble on Egypt unrest, oil jumps

GLOBAL MARKETS-Euro, shares dip; focus on EU bailout fund

Mon Jan 17, 2011 4:50am EST
* Euro slips 0.8 pct ahead of euro zone finmin meeting
* Investors anxious for deal on boosting euro safety fund
* Global stocks dip; European rally runs out of steam
By Jessica Mortimer

LONDON, Jan 17 (Reuters) - The euro slipped on Monday and a
brief European stock market rally ran out of steam as hopes of
swift action from policymakers to boost the euro zone's rescue
fund faded ahead of a meeting of finance ministers.

Concerns about whether officials can agree on ways of
bolstering the European Financial Stability Facility
 weighed on market sentiment, with analysts
saying clearer signs of progress would be needed for the euro to
make significant gains.

"It's becoming increasingly apparent that Germany doesn't
want an increase in the rescue fund and that's weighing on euro
sentiment today because there were positive expectations
building last week," said Manuel Oliveri, currency strategist at
UBS in Zurich.

The euro was down 0.8 percent on the day against the dollar
EUR= at $1.3264, having rallied some 4 percent last week to
hit a one-month high of $1.3458 on Friday. Against a basket of
currencies, the dollar .DXY was up 0.46 percent at 79.521.
European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet gave a
fresh thumbs-up for a bigger safety fund on Sunday, a day before
euro zone finance ministers are expected to discuss an increase
in its effective lending capacity.

Some analysts pointed to a Feb. 4 European Council meeting
as a more likely stage for such decisions to be made, though
this week's meeting should give investors a sense of how much
agreement there is among euro zone members to enlarging the
facility.
German Bund futures FGBLc1 were 17 ticks lower at 124.74.

GLOBAL STOCKS
The MSCI world equity index .MIWD00000PUS was down 0.3
percent at 336.47, off a 28-month high of 337.68 touched
overnight as last week's rally petered out.

Chinese stocks .SSEC fell around 3 percent after China
raised banks' required reserves for the fourth time in just over
two months on Friday.

European shares .FTEU3 fell 0.1 percent, shedding initial
gains driven by a surge in British engineering firm Smiths Group
(SMIN.L) after it rejected a bid for its medical services unit,
and gains in oil shares. Trading was expected to be muted,
however, with U.S. markets closed for a public holiday.
Source: Reuters.Com

READ MORE - GLOBAL MARKETS-Euro, shares dip; focus on EU bailout fund

GLOBAL MARKETS-Stocks rise on JPMorgan results, euro rallies

Fri Jan 14, 2011 5:36pm EST
* Stocks rally on JPMorgan earnings, economic data
* Brent crude hits $99 a barrel before February expiry
* Euro has best week since mid-2009, more gains expected
* Treasuries retreat as equity appeal draws investors (Adds byline,
close of U.S. markets)

By Herbert Lash and Al Yoon
NEW YORK, Jan 14 (Reuters) - World stocks edged up on
Friday, with JP Morgan's strong earnings pushing Wall Street
higher, but China's latest move to tighten credit drove gold
to a one-week low, although oil prices rose.

A rise in Brent crude to above $99 a barrel helped lift
U.S. oil prices despite the increase in reserve requirements
at Chinese banks. For details see:

Wall Street rallied, with the benchmark S&P 500 Index
posting its seventh straight week of gains after JPMorgan
Chase & Co (JPM.N) reported a larger-than-expected 47 percent
increase in quarterly earnings.

Although sales at U.S. retailers rose slightly less than
expected in December, underlying inflation remained tame and
investors were cheered by other data that suggested the
recovery was modestly gathering strength. [ID:nN14146780]
Retail sales for 2010 reversed two years of contraction
with the biggest increase in more than a decade, while the
Federal Reserve reported a surprisingly large 0.8 percent gain
in output at U.S. factories, mines and utilities in December,
helped by cold weather.

The S&P Midcap 400 index .MID, which includes companies
with market caps ranging from $750 million to $3.3 billion,
surged to end the session at 931.07, an all-time closing
high.

"On balance, with supporting prices and in spite of mixed
economic data, there is expectation of a strong earnings
season," said Jim Awad, managing director at Zephyr Management
in New York.

The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI rose 55.48 points,
or 0.47 percent, to close at 11,787.38. The Standard & Poor's
500 .SPX gained 9.48 points, or 0.74 percent, to finish at
1,293.24. The Nasdaq Composite .IXIC climbed 20.01 points,
or 0.73 percent, to end at 2,755.30.
For the week, the Dow rose 1 percent, the S&P 500 added
1.7 percent and the Nasdaq rose 1.9 percent.
U.S. financial markets will be closed on Monday for Martin
Luther King Jr. Day.
Source: Reuters.Com

READ MORE - GLOBAL MARKETS-Stocks rise on JPMorgan results, euro rallies

GLOBAL MARKETS-Euro steadier after bounce, stocks ease

Fri Jan 14, 2011 1:32am EST
* Euro rally pauses, but on track for best week in 20 months
* Nikkei slips from 8-month peak
* Copper and oil also soften (Updates prices)
By Ian Chua

SYDNEY, Jan 14 (Reuters) - The euro paused on Friday but was still
on track to post its best weekly performance against the dollar in
20 months, while Asian equity markets struggled to extend recent
gains, with Japan's Nikkei retreating from an 8-month peak.
European shares were expected to open lower with financial
spreadbetters calling for declines of up to 0.5 percent.

The common currency fell prey to profit taking, having raced to a
high of $1.3383 on Thursday after the European Central Bank caught
markets off guard by hinting it could lift interest rates to contain
inflation, even while the bloc was tackling a debt crisis. It was
last at $1.3338, slightly below late U.S. levels.

The hawkish comments followed interest rate hikes in Thailand and
South Korea this week as policymakers grow increasingly worried
about inflationary pressures.

"The signals from the ECB also reinforce our view that it will hike
before the Fed does," said Ken Wattret, BNP Paribas chief eurogroup
market economist.

"As relatively little in the way of rate hikes has been priced in
for this year, the market is likely to continue to shift in the
direction of early tightening, absent a resurgence in market
volatility."

The euro's rise marked an impressive turnaround from a four-month
low around $1.2871 on Monday and set the scene for a retest of the
December high of $1.3500. It is up about 3.5 percent this week, the
biggest weekly rise since May 2009.

Well-received bond sales from highly indebted euro zone members
Portugal and Spain this week and speculation that European
policymakers will boost their war chest against attacks on euro zone
sovereign debt all contributed to the currency's better tone.

Gains in the euro saw the dollar index , which tracks the
greenback's performance against a basket of major currencies, fall
below 80.000 from this week's high of 81.313.

Tsutomu Soma, manager of foreign securities at Okasan Securities,
said the euro's rise was nothing more than short-covering from
overselling late last year on excessively bearish view on the euro
zone.

"Given that the fiscal problems in the region are unresolved,
investors will be cautious about chasing the currency higher."
Source: Reuters.Com

READ MORE - GLOBAL MARKETS-Euro steadier after bounce, stocks ease