European stocks up as euro heads to $1.30

[July 16, 2010]  LONDON (AP) -- European stock markets rose Friday, helped by a late rally on Wall Street overnight, while the euro headed towards $1.30 for the first time in over three months amid mounting concerns about the pace of the U.S. economic recovery.

In Europe, the FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was up 44.98 points, or 0.9 percent, at 5,256.27 while Germany's DAX rose 26.95 points, or 0.4 percent, to 6,176.31. The CAC-40 in France was 18.34 points, or 0.5 percent, higher at 3,600.16.

Wall Street was poised for a subdued opening despite Thursday's late rally, which limited the damage from a pair of extremely disappointing U.S. manufacturing surveys -- Dow futures were down 21 points, or 0.2 percent, at 10,271 while the broader Standard & Poor's 500 futures fell 0.9 point, or 0.1 percent, to 1,089.50.

Mitul Kotecha, an analyst at Credit Agricole, said stock markets around the world have been saved "from too much of a beating" by the release of better than expected earnings from JP Morgan Chase & Co. as well as the $550 million agreement between Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and regulators to settle civil fraud charges and news from BP PLC that it has temporarily stemmed the flow of oil from the leak from its Gulf well.

Earnings will be a focus later, with Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc. and General Electric Co. all publishing their latest quarterly results, but U.S. economic figures will also feature strongly.

The recent raft of downbeat U.S. data has had a big impact in the currency markets, where the euro continues to make a concerted effort to break through the $1.30 mark for the first time since May 4.

By late-morning London time, the euro was 0.4 percent higher at $1.2972, just below its intraday high of $1.2983.

The euro has advanced over 10 cents against the dollar since hitting a four-year low of $1.1878 in early June on a combination of easing worries over Europe's sovereign debt crisis and concerns about the U.S. economic recovery.

Soft retail sales and manufacturing data this week have further fueled those concerns.

Investors will be focusing on U.S. consumer price inflation data for June to see if any slowdown is being seen in price levels. Lower inflation could be indicating subdued economic activity, which would further reduce expectations that the U.S. Federal Reserve will be raising interest rates anytime soon.

"The big fear will be that the CPI data later in the session could well come in lower than expected and yet again send investors running, worried of a slowdown in the U.S. economic recovery," said James Hughes, market analyst at CMC Markets.

Earlier in Asia, Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 stock index lost 277.17 points, or 2.9 percent, to 9,408.38, its biggest drop since June 7, amid concerns that the rising value of the yen will hurt Japanese exporters.

By late-morning London time, the dollar was down a further 0.2 percent at 87.25 yen.

"The Nikkei lost 2.9 percent with the impact of yen strength on exporters worrying investors ahead of a three day weekend in Japan," said Jane Foley, research director at Forex.com.

South Korea's Kospi shed 0.7 percent to 1,738.45, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was down 0.5 percent at 4,422.70 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng index rose 0.06 percent to 20,267.87.

Shanghai's Composite Index was steady at 2,424.27 after China said Thursday its gross domestic product expanded by 10.3 percent in the second quarter from a year earlier, down from 11.9 percent growth in the first quarter.

Benchmark crude for August delivery was up 14 cents to $76.76 a barrel at midday Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

[Associated Press; By PAN PYLAS]

Associated Press writer Alex Kennedy in Singapore contributed to this story.

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.