Global markets gain on US data, positive EU newsflow

US data and positive Eurozone newsflow aided upmove in the US equity markets on Thursday. S&P 500 Index closed at a 4-month high.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel publicly supported ECB President Mario Draghi’s announcements in the last ECB meet.

Merkel says

‘Draghi's declarations were completely in line with the approach taken by EU leaders.’

‘Germany knows that in a common currency area political responsibilities need to be shared."

‘We are on a good path on many of these issues, but time is of the essence. We are fully aware of this.’

Agencies reported that Spain is set to receive an emergency disbursement from the approved bank bailout.

US data was positive yesterday: July building permits went up 6.8% MoM as against expectations of 1.2% - Best rate since August 2008

Initial jobless claims rose by 2000 to 3,66,000, which was in-line with expectations.

Philadelphia Fed for August improved to minus 7.1 as against minus 12.9 in previous month, which was mildly weaker than expectations. 

Eurozone CPI for July stood at 2.4% - Unchanged MoM and was in-line with forecast.

US markets at close: Dow Jones gained 0.65% at 13,250.1 and S&P 500 Index rose 0.7% to 1,415.5 while Nasdaq Composite rallied 1%

European markets at close: DAX went up 0.7% and CAC was up 0.9% while FTSE was flat. Spain surged 4.1% and Italy jumped 1.2%

Currencies

Euro holds on to gains post Merkel comments.

Euro hit a high of 1.237 to the US dollar as against low of 1.225 yesterday. Currently it was at 1.235 to the US dollar.

US dollar was tad lower, but it was in green territory today morning.

Yen hit a 79.4 to the US dollar yesterday, which was moving around 79 today.

Commodities

Brent crude September futures saw USD 117 a barrel intraday yesterday, which closed below the same level.

Talk of US strategic oil reserve release restricted further upmove in crude oil prices.

Brent crude October futures closed at USD 114.5 a barrel yesterday. WTI crude rose by USD 1.3 a barrel to close at USD 95.6 a barrel yesterday.

LME Copper gained 0.9% yesterday, which was up 0.3% today

What to watch out for

Eurozone Current Account, Trade Balances

German PPI

US Consumer Confidence

US Leading Indicators

API inventories