Friday, June 6, 2008

European stocks..are they ok?

European stocks pared losses as rising oil and metals prices lifted earnings prospects for commodity producers. U.S. index futures were little changed, while shares in Asia advanced.

Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Europe's biggest oil producer, climbed in London. BHP Billiton Ltd. led mining companies higher as copper, nickel and lead rallied.

Europe's Dow Jones Stoxx 600 Index fell less than 0.1 percent to 316.42 as of 12:03 p.m. in London, after dropping as much as 0.3 percent earlier.

The index, which has lost 1.9 percent this week, has retreated 21 percent from a six-year high a year ago as record oil prices, higher inflation and credit-related losses approaching $400 billion threaten to push the U.S. into recession.

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Asian stocks are up

Exporters of Cars, Electronics have led the Asian stock market to take an upswing in its trading session. Japanese and South-Korean Automakers increased their sales in U.S and dollar is advancing. Asian Carmakers have outsold the three biggest U.S manufacturers for the first time and this has made the Honda Motors increase its share-value to six-months high in Tokyo. Sony Corp also advanced when Federal Reserve chairman Ben signaled that he is done with cutting the interest rates by driving the dollar to a near three-month high against the yen. Bernanke said yesterday interest rates are well positioned to promote growth and stable prices. The central bank is working with the Treasury to monitor foreign-exchange markets and is aware of the effect of the dollar's decline on inflation and price expectations. Sony gets about a quarter of its sales from the Americas while Toyota generates about a third of its sales from North America.