Wall Street advances; Dow ends at six week highs

In the US, the rally continued for the markets as they got near the highs of the year. The Dow ended at six week highs. The broad market turned positive for the month. However, thin volumes persisted in the markets owing to geopolitical uncertainty.

Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.58% or 71.6 points at 12350.61. Nasdaq Composite added 0.72% or 19.9 points at 2776.79. Standard & Poor's 500 gained 0.67% or 8.82 points at 1328.26.

In economic data, the private sector added 201,000 jobs from February to March. The report came ahead of the closely watched non-farm payrolls report.

Mortgage applications dropped 7.5% for the week ended March 25, led by a 10.1% drop in re-financings. On the commodities front, commercial oil inventories rose for the tenth time in 11 weeks, up by 2.9 million barrels. And planned lay-offs dropped 18% in March down from 50,702 job cuts in February.

The economic data to watch out for, the weekly initial jobless claims expected to fall slightly at 380,000 from 382,000. Also, the Chicago PMI headline index for March is expected to come at 70. It would be a tad lesser than the 71.2 recorded for February. Meanwhile, factory orders for February are expected to come at 0.5%, a sharp decline from the 3.1% in January.

In the currency space, yen fell for a 6th straight session against the dollar as positive economic data boosted investor confidence in the greenback. The euro also hit a 10-month high against the yen as the market priced in expected interest rate hike.

Crude prices eased despite volatile trade on the back of larger than expected US crude inventories at the cushing delivery point. Crude shrugged negative cues from West Asia trading around USD 104 per barrel mark, while Brent traded flat around the USD 115 per barrel mark.

Copper prices may see their first quarterly loss on speculation that global growth may slowdown and possibility of china extending its tightening measures.