US equity markets end higher; crude rises over 2%

By Varinder Bansal, Research Analyst at CNBC-TV18

The US equity markets recovered marginally from day's low on Tuesday. European markets bounced from 2-year lows led by financials.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended up 45 points at 11,106, after seeing recovery of 118 points from day's low of 10,987.

NASDAQ Composite closed near day's high, up 37 points at 2,495. The S&P 500 Index ended up 10 points at 1,162, after seeing recovery of 16 points from day's low of 1,157.

Italy rejected reports that it is in talks with Beijing to buy debt, say talks were about direct investments; Italian Austerity measures are likely to be approved today.

Reports that Angela Merkel (German Chancellor), George Papandreou (Greek PM) and Nicolas Sarkozy (French President) to hold conference call today to get further political support for Greece. But Interest rate on two-year Greek bonds approached 100% last night (not hoping any resolution), interest rate on new 5-year bonds hit 5.6% - highest ever

French lenders dismissed concerns over their access to funds.

European markets ended higher: CAC was up 1.4%, DAX up 1.85% and FTSE up 0.87%. Bank stocks saw technical rally: Societe Generale was up 15% and Deutsche Bank up 8.2%.

CBOE VIX was down 4.3% at 36.9.

Asian markets were mixed in trade: Straits Times and Hang Seng were up 1%. Taiwan rose 0.8% and Nikkei was up 0.2%. However, Shanghai and Kospi fell 1%.

Currencies

Dollar was up 4 basis points versus Euro at 1.367.

Yen was flat as against USD at 76.9.

Commodities

CRB Commodity Index rose 0.5% on Tuesday. It gained 0.9% YTD.

Crude oil was up 2.3% at USD 90.21/barrel.

Natural gas went up 2.6% at USD 3.98 per MMBtu

Gold rose 0.9% at USD 1830/ounce.

Silver gained 2.4% at USD 41.19/ounce.

Data to watch

Weekly mortgage applications, PPI, retail sales, business inventories, oil inventories, 30-year bond auction, Microsoft analyst meeting