4:30PM NY, 10:30 PM Germany

Market averages rallied as investors cheered positive earnings.

Yield on 10-year bond closed at 4.776% and the 30-year bond closed at 4.907%.

Gold rose $3.80 to close at $580.30, silver increased 5 cents to at $11.38 as well as copper rose 2.35 cents to close at $3.3865.

Oil grew 71 cents a barrel to close at $58.30, heating oil increased 1.75 cents to at $1.70, gasoline rose 1.78 cents to close at $1.47 and natural gas dropped 44 cents to close at $5.71.

Asian markets closed mixed. The advancers were led by an increase of 1.70% in Thailand, a growth of 1.49% in India and a rise of 0.54% in Malaysia. The decliners were Taiwan with a decrease of 0.32%, Indonesia with a loss of 0.23% and Japan with a drop of 0.19%. Australia led the decliners with a fall of 0.41% despite acquisition speculation across several sectors. South Korea led gainers as investors chased blue chips, while Japan was lower due to weakness in banking.

European markets ended higher led by a growth of 1.27% in Belgium, a gain of 1.10% in Spain and an increase of 0.91% in France. European stocks ended higher as truck makers jumped boosted by strong results from Scania.

Latin America markets finished higher led by a rise of 1.11% in Mexico, an increase of 0.91% in Argentina and a rise of 0.56% in Canada. The only loser was Brazil with a decrease of 0.86%. Markets in Brazil were closed because of a national holiday. Canadian stocks gained from a rebound in the price of crude oil, which rose back above $58 a barrel and because of an unexpected decline in heating oil stocks.

2:00PM Harley Davidson reported earnings growth of 18%.

Harley Davidson Inc (HOG: chart) reported third quarter earnings of $1.20 per share, a rise of 18% from a year ago earnings of 96 per share. The company reported profit in the quarter of $312.7 million compared to $265 million a year ago. The revenue in the period rose 14.3% to $1.64 billion from a year ago, beating the estimates of $1.58 billion. Analysts were looking for revenue of $1.5 billion and earnings per share of $1.10.

The company introduced four new bikes and new engines for Dyna, softail and Touring Bike. International sales rose 19% supported by a sales momentum in Canada and Japan and domestic sales rose 6.7%.

12:30PM PepsiCo Q3 profit up 71% on revenue rise of 9.4%.

PepsiCo (PEP: chart), second largest beverage and snack maker, reported third quarter profit of 88 cents per share compared to 51 cents a share a year ago. The company reported profit in the quarter of $1.48 billion in the period, a rise from $864 million from a year ago. Revenue rose $8.95 billion from $8.18 billion a year ago.

The company raised its earnings guidance for the full year to at least $2.98 per share from $2.95 a share. Analysts were looking for $2.99 per share of earnings for the year. The company stock recovered from early loss of 2.2% on the news.

PepsiCo also mentioned in the conference call that it is confident of its outlook and earnings guidance for the year. Pepsi International which accounts for 37% of revenue of the company said that recent pesticide controversy relating to the company in India has affected sales in August and improved in September, but declined to reveal numbers. Several media reports in India have suggested that Pepsi sales may have declined between 35% and 45%. The company CEO also said that it has increased prices for its Tropicana brand orange juice and blamed it on the “more structural price increase in oranges”.


11:30PM August trade deficit rose to $69.9 billion. Goods deficit increased $1.9 billion.

The familiar trade deficit with the rest of the world rose in August. China and OPEC, two of the largest trading partners accounted for $33.2 billion in goods deficit of the total August month goods deficit of $75.5 billion. In August export rose to $122.4 billion and import rose to $192.3 billion accounting for goods and service deficit of $69.9 billion. The U.S. is set to record rising and record trade deficit for the fifth year in a row.

Crude oil imports in August jumped to $20.8 billion and natural gas import rose to $2.5 billion. For the year so far crude and natural gas imports are running at 34% higher than a year ago to $148.7 billion. Record deficit in August is likely to take the annual deficit for the year above $780 billion, at least 9% higher than a year ago deficit of $716 billion. Deficit with China for the year is likely to grow 10% from a year ago deficit of $202 billion.

In the month of August, U.S. recorded $22 billion deficit with China, $11.2 billion with OPEC, $7.5 billion with Japan, $6.5 billion with Mexico and $6.08 billion with Canada. U.S. also recorded $8.9 billion deficit with Europe and $1.1 billion with India.