Wall Street shrugs off January job losses of 598K

7 Feb 2009, 0320 hrs IST, AGENCIES

NEW YORK: Wall Street has had another big rally as investors bet the government will take some big steps to help the economy.
Investors are awaiting a Senate vote on its version of an economic stimulus plan that would include a mix of spending and tax cuts. A vote on the bill, which stands at $937 billion, could come late Friday. Financial stocks led the market higher as investors also awaited the government's latest revisions to its lifeline for banks. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is expected to announce them on Monday. The Dow Jones industrials rose 217 to 8,280, bringing their two-day advance to more than 220. The Standard & Poor's 500 index is up 22 at 868, and theNasdaq composite is up 45 at 1,591. Advancing stocks were ahead of losers by 5 to 1 on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume came to 1.61 billion shares.

Hopes of stimulus plan push US stocks higher

6 Feb 2009, 2130 hrs IST, PTI

NEW YORK: The Wall Street soared in the first hour of trading, as the gloomy job data spurred hopes of the Federal government speeding up the stimulus package. Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed over 137 points, setting the pace for the other two benchmark indices -- Nasdaq Compositee and S&P 500. In another sign of the worsening labour market, the unemployment numbers for the month of January reached 5,98,000 while the jobless rate touched 7.6 per cent. Dow jumped 137.79 points or 1.71 per cent to 8,200.86 points. Nasdaq Composite grew 1.63 per cent to 1,570.97 points and S&P 500 rose 1.38 per cent to 857.53 points. The more than 800-billion dollar plan mooted by President Barack Obama is to come up in the Senate for discussion. The package aimed at kick starting the nation's recession-hit economy has been approved by the House of Representatives. As the hopes of stimulus gained momentum,shares of financial institutions -- Bank of America, Citigroup and JPMorgan -- surged in the early morning session. Bank of America skyrocketed nearly 17 per cent to 5.65 dollars while the scrip of Citi went up 6.23 per cent to 3.75 dollars. JPMorgan too was trading higher at 26.22 dollars.

Euro falls against dollar to $1.2718

2 Feb 2009, 1420 hrs IST, AGENCIES

FRANKFURT: The Euro fell against the dollar Monday as investors expected the European Central Bank to hold interest rates steady this week. The 16-nation euro fell to $1.2718 in European morning trading, down from $1.2794 late Friday in New York. The British pound also fell to $1.4307 from $1.4456 Friday. ``The new month has got under way with both the pound and euro slipping amid mounting speculation as to how the respective rate verdicts from central banks will influence values later in the week,'' currency analyst James Hughes wrote in a research note. ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet has indicated the bank will likely hold rates steady at 2 percent at Thursday's meeting. ''Our next important rendezvous will be in March, even if we are not precommitted,'' he said at the bank's January meeting . The dollar will likely gain against other currencies as a ``safe-haven'' as world economies continue into recession, analysts said. Lower interest rates can also drive investors from a currency as they move funds where they earn better returns. The dollar was slightly lower against the Japanese yen Monday, at 89.34 compared with 89.88 yen late Friday in New York.

Treasurer says Australia will fall into deficit

2 Feb 2009, 0700 hrs IST, AP

CANBERRA: Australia's government plans to break an election campaign pledge by spending its budget into a deficit this year because of the global recession, Treasurer Wayne Swan said on Monday. Swan met his Cabinet colleagues on Monday to discuss a second multibillion-dollar stimulus package aimed at curbing the economic decline. No details were immediately announced. The government has already injected 36 billion Australian dollars ($23 billion) into the economy since September, including cash bonuses in welfare checks, funds for residential mortgage backed securities, car industry assistance plus infrastructure projects. Swan had previously forecast a slim surplus this year despite the massive injection. But the worsening economic climate has eroded that. ``Certainly it means that the budget is going into temporary deficit and because of the size of this global recession and the size of the demand shock which is being transmitted to the Australian economy, it does have a fairly dramatic impact on the budget bottom line,'' Swan told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio. ``We plan to return the budget to surplus when global conditions normalize,'' he added. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's center-left Labour Party was elected in 2007 on a promise to maintain surpluses in the nation's annual budgets. The preceding center-right government had delivered 10 surpluses in 12 annual budgets. Late last year, the International Monetary Fund predicted Australia would be one of the few developed countries to avoid recession in 2009. But on Saturday, the IMF told Australian officials the country's economy was likely to contract by 0.2 percent, delivering Australia's first recession since 1991. Rudd responded by accusing unregulated free market economics of ``turbo charging greed.''