Reuters: US Dollar Report: GLOBAL MARKETS-Earnings lift equities; dlr dips on QE3 views

Reuters: US Dollar Report Reuters.com is your source for breaking news, business, financial and investing news, including personal finance and stocks. Reuters is the leading global provider of news, financial information and technology solutions to the world's media, financial institutions, businesses and individuals. // via fulltextrssfeed.com

GLOBAL MARKETS-Earnings lift equities; dlr dips on QE3 views Apr 27th 2012, 20:20 Fri Apr 27, 2012 4:20pm EDT * Amazon, Expedia jump on higher-than-expected profits * Lower-than-expected U.S. GDP leaves Fed easing door open * Oil drops, but QE3 hopes limit losses By Luciana Lopez NEW YORK, April 27 (Reuters) - Global stocks ended higher on F riday on strong earnings reports, but the dollar dipped against the euro and the yen as lower-than-expected U.S. economic data fed views that the Federal Reserve could ease policy further to boost flagging growth. U.S. stocks advanced for a fourth straight day, helped by stronger-than-expected profits at Amazon.com Inc and Expedia Inc. Shares of those companies jumped about 16 percent and 24 percent, respectively, underscoring the importance of quarterly profits in driving equities' recent advance, even as data showed the U.S. economy cooled in the first quarter. "Earnings have been spectacular, and that's a shot in the arm to investors, but GDP is acting as a counterweight," said David Dietze, president and chief investment strategist at Summit, New Jersey-based Point View Wealth Management. "When coupled with other weak data, the ghost of a slowdown starts to loom and that's causing investors to pause a little despite better-than-expected results from blue chips like Amazon." The Dow Jones industrial average gained 23.69 points, or 0.18 percent, to end at 13,228.31. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index gained 3.38 points, or 0.24 percent, to 1,403.36. The Nasdaq Composite Index gained 18.59 points, or 0.61 percent, to 3,069.20. The U.S. economy, the world's largest, expanded at a 2.2 percent annual rate in the first three months of the year, below economists' expectations of a 2.5 percent pace. The data was "certainly a bit of a mixed picture," said Camilla Sutton, chief currency strategist at Scotia Capital. "It does open the door for the Fed to remain dovish." The possibility of more stimulus from the Fed weighed on the dollar, which fell against the euro and the yen. The greenback slipped 0.79 percent to 80.37 yen. The euro firmed 0.24 percent to $1.3240 against the greenback - well within the $1.30 to $1.34 range in which the single currency has spent much of the year. While the Bank of Japan increased bond buying and made other changes to its purchase program, the measures were seen as incremental rather than significant steps to try to dig the Japanese economy out of the doldrums. The FTSEurofirst ended up 0.69 percent at 1,051.50, with record first-quarter orders from Swedish engineering groups Sandvik and Atlas Copco outweighing a Standard & Poor's downgrade of Spanish sovereign debt late on T hur sday. The Spanish downgrade did push that country's 10-year debt yields briefly above 6 percent. Yields on Spain's 10-year bond later slipped to around 5.906 percent. Data released on Friday highlighted the extent of economic weakness in the highly indebted country, with nearly a quarter of the nation's work force unemployed and retail sales falling for the 21st consecutive month. Italian yields were slightly higher, but nerves eased as Italy sold 5.95 billion euros of new bonds without incident, though at higher rates. The benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note was up 4/32, with the yield at 1.9313 percent. U.S. crude oil futures turned positive in light volume late in the session, helped by short-covering ahead of the weekend. U.S. crude settled at $104.93 per barrel, up 38 cents, or 0.36 percent. Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints

You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed, or manage all your subscriptions