Tuesday, December 1, 2009 10:11 AM
At the open: Everybody up
Simon Avery
The major North American stock indices gained more than one percentage point each in the opening minutes of trading Tuesday.
A sense of a mini-bull market emerged after Dubai said it is working with its lenders to restructure $26-billion of debt, alleviating concerns of a sovereign default.
At the same time, strong production figures out of China and a slide in the Japanese yen sent markets in Europe and Asia up at least 2 per cent.
The news gave investors appetite for more risk, sending the U.S. dollar down against the loonie and the euro and commodities price up. Gold struck a record $1,200 an ounce and oil climbed 80 cents to $78.08 a barrel.
Canada’s currency traded up 1 cent at 96 cents (U.S.). Comments from Canada’s finance minister helped give lift to the loonie. Jim Flaherty said Canadian policy makers are unlikely to use the options that they have in order to affect the value of the Canadian dollar at the present time, according to a report from Bloomberg news.
In Toronto, raw material and energy producers led the S&P/TSX up 149.43 points, or 1.4 per cent, to 11596.63. Kinross Gold gained 4 per cent and Barrick Gold jumped 5 per cent.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average added 107.31 points or 1 per cent, to 10452..15. The broader S&P 500 gained 11.50 points, or 1 per cent, to 1107.13.
The latest economic data released Tuesday pointed to further expansion in U.S. manufacturing in November. The Institute for Supply Management’s manufacturing index fell to 53.6, from 55.7 in October, the low range of economists’ expectations. Any figure above 50 is considered to represent a growing sector.
