Global share markets rose on Friday after strong corporate results and reduced concerns over the possible spread of Ebola in America boosted Wall Street.
MSCI’s all-country world equity index rose 3.1% for the week – the biggest weekly percentage gain since July 2013, while the benchmark S&P 500 was up 5.5% from its low on October 15 and had its best weekly gain in almost two years.
Global and Australian share markets have roughly recovered half the fall they saw in the correction.
After last week’s solid gains and Wall Street’s strong close on Friday night, our market will be up around 18 points today, according to the futures market.
But watch the big miners after the price of iron ore fell under $US80 a tonne on Friday night to $US79.80 a tonne. That left iron ore down 1% over the week.
The dollar ended just under 88 USc.
Over the last week US shares rose 4.1%, European shares rose 2.7%, Japanese shares rose 5.2% and Australian shares rose 2.7%.
Bond yields were mixed, the yield on the key 10-year US Treasury dipped to 2.27% from 2.28% on Thursday, while the 30-year held steady at 3.05%.
Commodity prices with oil down but metals up, and the Aussie dollar was little changed.
The S&P 500 index rose 4.1% last week, the most since January 2013.
On Friday, the Dow rose 127.51 points, or 0.76%, to 16,805.41, the S&P 500 gained 13.76 points, or 0.71%, to 1,964.58 and the Nasdaq Composite added 30.92 points, or 0.7% to 4,483.72.
In commodities, US West Texas type light crude futures for delivery in December settled down $US1.08 at $US81.01 per barrel. It rose in after hours trading and ended at $US81.30 a barrel.
In London, Brent oil prices fell but were little changed on the week. Brent crude settled at $US86.13 per barrel, down 70c for the day.
Comex gold futures for December delivery rose $US2.70, or 0.2%, to settle at $US1,231.80 an ounce in New York. It ended at $US1,23.20 an ounce in after hours trading.
For the week, the precious metal fell 0.6%. December silver edged up 2c to $US17.18 an ounce. Copper was flat around $US3.04 a pound on Comex in New York.
Gold will be influenced by this week’s Fed discussions and the post meeting statement.
Oil though won’t – it is at the mercy of the weekly figures on US oil stocks.
