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Dow futures were up 0.5 percent at 11,861 while the broader Standard & Poor's 500 futures rose 0.6 percent to 1,255. The euro was up 1 percent at $1.4322, helped partly by eurozone retail sales figures showing a surprisingly big 0.9 percent rebound in June. That helped offset worries that Italy and Spain are getting sucked into Europe's debt crisis. The yield on Italian ten-year bonds briefly hit a euro-era high of 6.21 percent. Since then though, it has eased to 6.07 percent as investors await an economic statement from Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi. While the dollar is tanking against the euro, it is holding up better against the yen as investors are wary of the possibility of a market intervention by monetary authorities in Tokyo to weaken the Japanese currency. The dollar fell as low as 76.29 yen Monday, just shy of its record post-World War II low of 76.25 yen in the days following the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. The yen's strength in March prompted the world's leading central banks to join together to weaken the currency. By late morning London time, the dollar was only 0.2 percent lower at 77.14 yen. The yen's strength is another cause for concern for Japan's major exporters and the Nikkei 225 slid 2.1 percent to 9,637.14, its lowest close in five weeks. Elsewhere in Asia, Hong Kong's Hang Seng shed 1.9 percent to 21,002.72 while South Korea's Kospi tumbled 2.6 percent to 2,066.26. China's Shanghai Composite Index fared somewhat better, falling less than 0.1 percent to 2,678.49. Oil prices continued to drift lower on fears over the U.S. economy. Benchmark oil for September delivery was down 51 cents to $93.28 a barrel in electronic trading Wednesday on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
[Associated
Press;
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