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 Oil prices rose nearly 2 percent as traders covered short positions
after four days of losses and the U.S. oil rig count fell for a
seventh straight week.
On Wall Street, the benchmark S&P 500 index rose for a third
consecutive week, a streak not seen since May. General Electric
<GE.N> helped buoy the index for the day with a 3.4 percent gain
after the company reported quarterly results, but other industrials
like Honeywell <HON.N> fell.
"Right now, the trade is a risk relief rally, people buying back the
risk they sold earlier in the month," said Paul Zemsky, chief
investment officer, multi-asset strategies and solutions at Voya
Investment Management in New York.
With earnings in view, Zemsky said, "Expectations have been
depressed so far it seems almost certain we’ll have a positive
surprise."
The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> rose 74.22 points, or 0.43
percent, to 17,215.97, the S&P 500 <.SPX> gained 9.25 points, or
0.46 percent, to 2,033.11, and the Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC> added
16.59 points, or 0.34 percent, to 4,886.69.
The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index <.FTEU3> closed up 0.7
percent. For the week, the index was little changed, after a 4.4
percent advance the preceding week.
An MSCI gauge of stocks in top world markets <.MIWD00000PUS> rose
0.4 percent to close at its highest since mid-August.
EURO SOFT, YEN PARES WEEKLY GAINS
Annual inflation in the euro zone turned negative in September due
to sharply lower energy prices, maintaining pressure on the ECB to
increase its asset purchases to boost prices.
The euro <EUR=> fell 0.3 percent to $1.1346 and was little changed
for the week.
"In the near term, the dollar could gain further against the euro as
there's more speculation about more (quantitative easing) from the
ECB," said Lee Ferridge, State Street Global Markets' head of macro
strategy, North America, in Boston.
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Against the yen <JPY=>, the greenback advanced 0.5 percent to
119.42, though it was the yen's strongest week in the past six.
The dollar index, which values the greenback against a basket of six
major counterparts, was up 0.4 percent.
Oil prices rose, with traders closing short positions after a sharp
drop this week and reflecting a further decline in the U.S. rig
count.
The December contract for Brent, the new front month for the global
crude benchmark, was up 1.3 percent from its Thursday settlement,
trading above $50 a barrel. U.S. crude's front-month contract was up
1.9 percent at $47.26 per barrel.
For the week Brent fell 4.3 percent and WTI lost 4.8 percent.
U.S. 30-year Treasury yields dipped on views that the outlook for
inflation appeared weak.
Benchmark 10-year Treasury notes <US10YT=RR> were down 4/32 in price
to yield 2.0351 percent, from 2.021 percent late Thursday.
London copper <CMCU3> fell 0.4 percent and spot gold was down 0.5
percent.
(Additional reporting by Barani Krishnan, Richard Leong, Caroline
Valetkevitch and Sam Forgione; Editing by Bernadette Baum, Meredith
Mazzilli and Leslie Adler)
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