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Global Wrap:
European Markets Reach 11-Months High
Current Futures: Dow -27.00, S&P -3.10, NASDAQ -5.50
European markets hit a fresh new high for the current year, as the major indexes headed higher for five consecutive days, but face the challenge of getting to the close unimpeded by a 0.7% drop in S&P futures values from the overnight highs.
Most European markets traded in the green, led higher by the Luxembourg stock exchange, which managed a 2% increase by mid-day. There were only two exceptions in European trade; Spain and Sweden, both traded below the break-even line as the declines seen in the financial sectors had a substantial weight in the IBEX 35 and in the OMX Stockholm 30 index as lunch-time arrived.
Thursday is the first day of the last few weeks of trade that saw the European markets advance without the help of the financial and commodity sectors. The sectors with the biggest upside weight in the market were the technology stocks, after ASML – one of the biggest makers of semiconductors in the world - increased its sales outlook, and the media sector.
Most retail companies fell in Europe, posting relatively strongly declines. In the Nordic markets, the retail sector shed 1%, while it fell around 0.45% in the French stock market. In the U.K. FTSE, retailers were the worst performing stocks, having Home Retail, Kingfisher, Next, Marks & Spencer and William Morrison Supermarkets down between 2-5.5%.
With the gains posted on Thursday, European indexes reached 11-month high. Since the beginning of the year, the major European indexes are up approximately 20%, while they advanced more than 50% since March, when multi-year lows were reached.
Overnight, the U.K. FTSE advanced 9.53 points (0.19%) to 5,013.83, while the German Dax gained 33.12 points (0.59%) to 5,607.38.
Crude oil for October delivery was recently trading at $71.50 per barrel, higher by $0.20.
Gold for October delivery was recently trading lower by $12.30 to $984.80.