Investors fled to the safety of US government bonds on Wednesday, sending yields to historic lows, as fresh evidence of a severe downturn in the US economy sparked swings in stock markets before they closed broadly higher ahead of Thursday’s Thanksgiving holiday. Asian stocks also rose for a third day on Thursday after China slashed interest rates by 108bp, the most in 11 years, to 5.8% spur growth. Markets in India were closed after terrorist attacks killed more than 100 people in Mumbai, the nation’s financial hub.
Asian markets (Thurs)
05:27am GMT
Nikkei up 121.00 (+1.47%) at 8,334.22
Topix up 8.59 (+1.05) at 825.81
Hang Seng up 476.42 (+3.56%) at 13,845.87
US markets (Wed)
DJIA up 247.14 (+2.91%) at 8,726.61
Nasdaq up 67.37 (+4.60%) at 1,532.10
S&P500 up 30.29 (+3.53%) at 887.68
European markets (Wed)
FTSE100 down 18.56 (-0.44%) at 4,152.69
Eurofirst 300 down 2.78 (-0.33%) at 830.58
Currencies
05:29am GMT
€/$ 1.2914 (1.2963)
$/¥ 95.02 (95.11)
£/$ 1.5378 (1.5338)
Commodities (updated)
05:30am GMT
Brent Crude (Jan09) down 1.01 at 52.91
Light Crude (Jan09) down 1.08 at 53.36
100 Oz Gold (Dec08) up 5.20 at 813.70
3M 24HR Copper up 90.00 at 3,765.00
10-year government bond yields (%)
US 3.11 (3.09)
UK 3.78 (3.86)
Germany 3.28 (3.37)
Japan 1.38 (1.38)
Sources: FT, Reuters