4:30PM New York, 10:30PM Frankfurt, 2:00 AM Mumbai

Market averages in New York trading were lifted strength and tech stocks and weakness in financial sector. Stocks in retail sector fell after earnings. European stocks closed higher. Weak trading volume in Japan, Korea, India, and Australia persisted as investors stayed on the sideline.

FTSE 100 Index in London increased 79.80 or 1.30% to 6,212.00, in Tokyo Nikkei 225 closed at 16,153.82, up 0.88% or 140.99, and in Brazil, iBovespa Index traded up 123.2 or 0.23% to 52,857.84.

Yields edged lower on 10-year U.S. bonds and closed at 4.51% and 30-year bond rose to close at 4.84%.

Crude oil declined 15 cents to close at $73.36 per barrel, natural gas closed up 5 cents to $5.63 per mBtu, and gasoline futures decreased 2.07 cents to close at 208.01 cents per gallon.

Gold lost $1.50 in New York trading to close at $673.90 per ounce, silver closed 4.7 cents higher to close at $11.96 per ounce, and copper for August month deliver in London gained $92 to $7,430.00 per pound in New York trading.

In New York light trading volume and upcoming long weekend dominated trading sentiment. Tech stocks led the rising stocks for the second day and financials declined. The investors looking for safe havens gravitated to tech stocks and worried that there are significant unknowns in the financial sectors. Techs gained but financial stocks lost for the second day in a row.

Nasdaq gained a fraction when Dow and S&P 500 declined. Cisco, Motorola, Dell, and Advanced Micro, Intel and IBM gained in trading. Financials and brokerage stocks declined. Lehman Brothers lowered earnings forecast for the current quarter and the second half earnings for several brokerage companies. Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and Lehman Brothers declined more than 1%. Freddie Mac lost 5% after reporting 45% decline in second quarter profit dragging Fannie Mae 3.7% lower. Thornburg Mortgage sold $500 million of convertible preferred stocks. The sale by a company in troubled mortgage lending boosted confidence in the afternoon trading.

Earnings in the retail sector drove several stocks lower. Chico’s FAS (CHS: chart) reported 28% decline in earnings on 8% rise in sales and cautioned that earnings in the current quarter and same store sales may be lower than anticipated. Stock closed lost 11%. Coldwater Creek (CWTR: chart) plunged 26% after reporting 28% decline in profit and 6% loss in same store sales. Sears Holdings (SHLD: chart) second quarter earnings fell to $1.17 per share from $1.74 excluding one-time gain of 14 cents in the prior period. Sears dropped 2.3%. Wal-Mart fell 2% after Merrill Lynch cut its rating to ‘sell’.

Second quarter economic growth was revised to 4% from 3.4% by the Commerce Department and weekly jobless claims at the end of the last week rose 9,000 to 334,000. The government also reported that home prices across the nation increased 3.2% from a year ago and 0.1% from a year ago.

Of the 30 stocks in Dow Jones Industrial Average listed, 24 closed lower and 6 closed higher. Wal-Mart led the decliners with a fall of 1.97% followed by decrease of 1.5% in Citigroup, 1.25% in Honeywell and Disney, and 1.1% in AT&T. Home Depot led the gainers with a rise of 1.4%. Intel and IBM closed up 0.7%.

Of the stocks in S&P 500, 348 stocks closed lower and 147 gained, 5 stocks closed unchanged. Ensco International led the index stocks with a fall of 5.2% followed by losses of 5% in Freddie Mac and MGIC Investment, 4.8% in Dillard’s, 4.4% in Janus and King Pharmaceuticals. Noble Corp, CSX, and Rowan Companies fell 3.6%. Novell led the gainers with a rise of 8% followed by gains of 3.5% in Laboratory Corp, Celgene Corp and Tellabs. Coach, Tiffany, and Broadcom jumped 2.7%.

Asian Markets rose across the region closed higher. Philippines led the region with a gain of 3.5% followed by rises of 2% in Hong Kong, 1.5% in Taiwan, 1.1% in Shanghai, 0.9% in Tokyo and Korea, and 0.6% in Australia. In today’s trading 75% stocks in the Nikkei 225 index jumped in Tokyo and 70% of stocks in the ASX200 increased.

Trading volumes have declined in the region. Australia, Japan, India, Korea have seen volumes decline as much as 30% from the peak. The volatility of more than 1% up and down on almost daily basis appears to have put investors on hold. Shanghai is the only market that appears to attract new investors and grow trading volume and immune to daily volatility inflicted by the U.S. market in the region.

In Latin Markets trading Chile led the region with a gain of 0.43% followed by Brazil with a rise of 0.23% and Mexico with an increase of 0.11%. Argentina fell 0.25%. Of the 60 stocks listed in iBovespa index in Brazil, 27 fell and 32 increased and 1 remained unchanged. Cyrela led the stocks in the index with a gain of 4.6%. Eighteen stocks in the index lost more than 1%.


2:00PM New York, 6:00PM London - Oil, mining and financial stocks led UK stocks higher for the second day running. Bank of England extends 1.6 billion pounds to unidentified borrower. July mortgage approvals remained steady.

UK shares closed higher helped by gains in oil related shares and mining stocks. London finished up 1.3% adding to the 0.5% rise yesterday. Of the 102 FTSE 100 shares, 92 gained, 9 dropped while 1 remained unchanged. Of the index stocks 20 shares rose above 2%.

In London trading FTSE 100 surged 1.3% or 79.8 to 62,212.00. The pound fell 0.4% to 2.01 dollar, as investors shifted funds to equities. To the euro, the sterling eased to 0.6785. The Bank of England extended 1.6 billion pounds to an unnamed borrower at a penalty rate of 6.75%, 1% higher than normal key bank rate. Almost two weeks back, the bank lent $628 million to Barclays, as well, at peak of U.S credit market crunch. Interbank overnight rates rose to 6.13% from 5.9% yesterday, as a result, amid cash shortage fears.

The Bank of England reported Thursday a total of 115,000 mortgages worth 9.2 billion pounds were approved in July. In June mortgage lending rose by 9.34 billion pounds. London credit card debt rose 224 million pounds, said the Bank, with the cumulative year-to-date figure now at 54 billion pounds. Overall unsecured borrowing increased 1.1 billion in July, the biggest monthly increase since November 2006. Mortgages have become more expensive over the past year as lenders have passed on the five interest rate hikes from the Bank of England. Thursday, Nationwide building society released its property survey saying UK house prices rose 0.6% in August, but the annual rate of house price inflation fell to 9.6% from 9.9% in July.

Of the FTSE 100 stocks oil shares gained helped by rising international crude oil prices. Oil firm, BG Group led gainers rising 4.3% followed by Liberty Intl plc up 3.8% while Sabmiller plc closed higher 3.51%. Enterprise Inns added 3.2% while Legal & Gen Group lifted higher 3%. Oil stocks, Royal Dutch Shell and BP plc gained 2.32% and 1.4% respectively. Financial and mining shares rose. Standard Chartered, Old Mutual plc, Schroders plc NV, Man Group plc and Capita Group plc gained 2.8%, 2.5%, 2.32%, 1.6% and 1.55% respectively. Mining stocks BHP Billiton plc, Xstrata plc, Vedanta Resource, Rio Tinto plc and Antofagasta plc all rose between 1.4% and 2.8%.

Of the index shares losses were paced by DSG Internation down 1.6% followed by Barclays plc that closed lower 0.42%. Kingfisher plc and HBOS plc sagged 0.24% and 0.23% while Barratt Dev ended down 0.22%.