Another solid end for markets around the world with shares particularly solid, although most had gains of less than 1% for the week.
But they still finished the week on a confident tone – although commodities are coming under increasing pressure from falling US oil prices (see separate story).
Wall Street had its fourth week of gains, Asian and European shares also did well and Australian shares finished with a small rise for the week (which like all markets, took in the final days of the very strong month of October).
The coming week though will be dominated by the listing in New York of Twitter on Thursday night, our time.
The stock will be priced early Thursday morning and depending on demand it could be anything from $US17 to $US20 a share. There are some outlandish valuations of up to $US26 a share. 70 million shares are being issued, which would value the company at around $US11 billion initially.
Twitter is listing on the New York Stock Exchange and not on the tech-heavy Nasdaq. Expectations are for the shares to list at a premium and not repeat the farce last year when Facebook listed on Nasdaq.
In the US last Friday the Dow rose 69.80 points, or 0.45%, to end at 15,615.55, the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index gained 5.10 points, or 0.3%, to finish at 1,761.64 and the Nasdaq added 2.34 points, or 0.06%, to close at 3,922.04.
For the week, the Dow rose 0.3% and the S&P added just 0.1%, while the Nasdaq lost half a per cent. That was hardly very convincing, but it was convincing enough for those who love momentum trends for markets.
For both the Dow and the S&P 500, it was the fourth successive week of gains.
Not even the Fed’s subtly more hawkish take on the US economy could stall the rise.
Helping boost sentiment on Friday was a 13% surge in car sales in October (which was more evidence the US consumer has shaken off any worries about the debt and budget impasse) as well as solid reports on the health of manufacturing around the world, including China where activity hit an 18 month high and in the US where manufacturing had its strongest month since April 2011.
In Europe, the Stoxx Europe 600 Index rose 0.4% for the week, taking the rise so far in 2013 to 15%.
The index hit a five year high on Thursday before a slight easing on Friday as markets sold off a touch.
It was the second successive month of gains for European markets where the record setting German market continues to dominate.
Indexes rose in 14 of the 18 western European markets last week. London’s FTSE rose 0.2%, Germany’s Dax was up 0.3% and France’s CAC 40 finished with a gain of just under 0.1%.
In Asia, the MSCI Asia Pacific lost ground on Friday as most markets across the region ended weaker, but it still climbed 0.2% to be up 2.9% since the start of October.
In Australia our market ended higher over the week, rising 0.5% despite the small fall on Friday.
The ASX200 closed at 5411.1 points, while the All Ordinaries index closed up 0.39% at 5406.5.
ASX200 YTD – Another solid week goes by: Australia manages another gain
The banks of course were the drivers with the ANZ up 3.2% and Westpac added 0.7%.
But the Commonwealth eased 1.2% after hitting new highs.
It provides its first quarter update on Wednesday, while Westpac reports this morning.
Macquarie group jumped 3.8% over the week, thanks to its solid 39% rise interim profit on Friday and a special dividend.
CSL jumped 3.4% in another solid week for one of the country’s premier growth stocks.
Telstra aded 1.8% and is now established well above $5 a share.
Wesfarmers added 2.2% and Woolies rose 1.1%, but David Jones stood out with a 5.6% rise thanks to the surprise first quarter sales update which showed the first positive sales growth for three years.
BHP Billiton added 0.3% and Rio Tinto eased by the same amount.
They will get more attention next week in the wake of the October economic data from China.
UGL Group lost 6.5%, Qantas shed 4.3% and Brambles lost 2.8%.
The ASX 200 is up more than 10% since August and close to 28% since June, 2012.
