Another solid week for most global markets with the US ending on an up note Friday, despite renewed fears about the financial health of Ireland and its troubled banks.
At the same time US consumer confidence fell to a year low in the latest measure. Gold hit a new high, but oil fell.
US stocks rose for a third straight week, but it wasn’t a storming finish to the day or the week and the major indices staggered over the line at the end in positive territory.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index climbed less than 0.1% to 1125.59 in New York, its highest close in almost six weeks.
That left it up 1.4% for the week.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 13.02 points, or 0.12%, to end at 10,607.85, leaving it also up 1.4% for the week.
And the Nasdaq Composite Index ended up 12.36 points, or 0.5%, to 2,315.61n on Friday.
That was its eight positive day and the biggest winning-streak so far this year.
Nasdaq finished the week ahead 3.3%.
Ten-year US Treasury yields fell 2 basis point to 2.74% after being lower earlier in the day.
Six US banks, all small, failed on Friday taking the year’s toll to 125, only 15 short of the 140 failures in 2009, which was the highest since the early 1990’s.
But Australia will open lower if the futures market is any guide.
The share price index was down 21 points at the close on Saturday night, despite the close in the green for Wall Street.
That was on top of the 33.6 point rise in the ASX200 on Friday.
The ASX 200 was up 1.7% for the week, making it the third week of gains in a row.
The Aussie dollar ended at a two year closing high of 94.39 USc in New York.
Yields on US Treasuries fell after the Thomson Reuters/ University of Michigan preliminary index of consumer sentiment dropped to 66.6 from 68.9 in August.
Economists had forecast the measure would rise to 70 and it was the lowest the survey reading has been since August 2009.
China’s Yuan was set at the highest reference rate since July 2005 on Friday at 6.7172 to the US dollar today.
European shares fell Friday off the back of the worries about Ireland (and Portugal).
The Stoxx Europe 600 Index fell 0.2%, erasing an earlier 1.1% rally and capping its first weekly decline this month with a fall of 0.7%.
Indexes fell in 11 of the 18 major western European markets.
Germany’s DAX lost less than 0.1%, while London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.1%. France’s CAC 40 eased 0.1%.
In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei average rose 1.2% to a six-week closing high, helped by a weaker yen after Japan’s massive yen-selling splurge last week.
That left the index with its best weekly performance this year.
The benchmark Nikkei was up 116.59 points at 9626.09, its highest finish since August 6 and up 4.2% for the week.
Overall, the MSCI Asia Pacific Index added 2% last week, its third week of gains as well.
Besides the advances in Australia and Japan, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index rose 3.4% and South Korea’s Kopsi was up 1.4%.
But the Shanghai Composite Index fell 2.4% last week, its largest fall for more than two months.
