So how did the markets finish the week?
In the US the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index had its biggest weekly gain in more than two months.
After the miserable first quarter, the market kicked higher, although the rally’s strength looked to peter out by the time the worse than expected US jobs figures for March were released on Friday.
The S&P 500 added 0.1% Friday to close at 1,370.4, Dow fell 0.1% to 12,609.42 and Nasdaq rose 0.3% to 2,370.98.
The S&P 500 climbed 4.2% last week; the Dow rose 3.2% and Nasdaq added 4.9%.
The news over the weekend was that Microsoft has given Yahoo three weeks to agree on a new offer, or the deal goes hostile.
European stocks rose Friday, giving the Dow Jones Stoxx 600 Index its biggest weekly gain in a year.
But the US jobs figures caused a small sell off, but the gains were still positive.
The Stoxx 600 added 0.4% to take the week’s gain to 4.1%, the biggest in almost 13 months.
Indices rose in 15 of the 18 western European markets. London’s FTSE 100 gained 1% Friday, while France’s CAC 40 and Germany’s DAX rose 0.3%.
It was the FTSE 100 Index’s biggest weekly gain in five years, thanks mainly to talk of takeover activity around British Energy Group.
The Index rose 4.5% last week, the largest rise since late March 2003 when the UK market was starting to come off the bottom.
In Asia, the MSCI Asia Pacific Index fell on Friday ending a two-day, 4.8% rally. The region-wide index rose 2.1% last week for its first back-to-back advance since December. The index is still down 8.3% this year though.
Japan’s Nikkei rose on Friday, and added 3.7% in value over the week.
A notable under performer was the Indian stockmarket which fell to a two week low.
The Bombay Stock Exchange’s Sensex fell 3% on Friday and was down 2.6% over the week, the largest loss in a month as worries about food prices, inflation and corporate earnings affected sentiment.
In Australia our market is looking for a solid gain today of around 40 points after the Share Price Index closed up 39 on Saturday morning.
Traders ignored the slowing in the US markets after the jobs figures.
The ASX 200 rose 0.2%, to 5,619.60 at the close in Sydney, for its fifth- straight day of gains and the All Ordinaries Index climbed 17.90, or 0.3% to 5,663.70.
The ASX 200 and the All Ords were both up by around 4.9%.
QBE Insurance Group said it was on track to meet its full-year profit growth target of up to 20% and the shares jumped 59c to $25.19.
Wesfarmers raised $710 million in a bond issue in the US; the shares edged up 10c to $39.44. Rival Woolworths was up 39c at $30.70 but Harvey Norman lost 4c to $4.00 and David Jones shed 8c at $3.70.
BHP Billiton rose 51c to $38.60 and Rio Tinto was up 70c to $130.85. Both companies had their outlooks upgraded by US brokers, Sandford Bernstein. The 3.4 BHP shares offer for every Rio share was valued at $131.24.
Banks were mostly lower as investors took a breather: the ANZ lost 58c to $23.56; NAB fell 82c to $31.10; Westpac shed 47c to $25.13. But the Commonwealth Bank rose 7c to end the day at $45.48. Macquarie fell $1.88 to $56.30, but it was still up 6.7% over the week.
Oil stocks were mixed, with Santos rising 30c to $15.15, but Oil Search lost 16c to $4.75 and Woodside Petroleum 60c to $56.04.
Media stocks were mixed, with Consolidated Media putting on 2c to $4.07. There’s renewed doubt about the bid by Lachlan Murdoch for Cons Media with James Packer. Packer now reportedly only wants 25%, not 50% of the bid and wants $4.80 a share for his 38%. He proposes to sell down his stake to 25%. That means Lachlan Murdoch will have to find 75% of the cash needed in equity and debt.
Telstra lost one cent to $4.53 and its installment receipts were steady at $2.95. Optus parent Singapore Telecommunications shed 3c to $3.15.
The most heavily traded stock by volume was Mount Gibson Iron, with 183.1 million shares changing hands for a total of $487.7 million. The stock last traded down 23cto $2.70. That was after Russian billionaire, Alisher Usmanov sold his 19.5% stake in Mt. Gibson Iron Ltd. for $416 million, or $2.65 a share. The shares went to institutional holders.
Usmanov’s planned sale of his stake to a subsidiary of China’s state owned Shougang Corp was blocked early last week by the Takeovers Panel.
In commodities, copper jumped to its highest level in almost a month after the US dollar weakened off the back of the poor US March jobs figures and rise in the unemployment rate.
That got speculators tipping a further rate cut later this month from the US Federal Reserve.
May Comex copper rose 5.3 USc, or 1.4%, on Friday in New York to close at $US3.9545 a pound.
Copper rose 3.2% last week, despite fears about the health of the US economy.
While the poor US employment report pointed to weakening copper demand, the fall in the value of the US dollar was the driver in boosting the price.
Wheat jumped 4% on Friday on speculation that the new winter crop now emerging is being hurt by too much sun in some parts of the growing areas and too much wet weather in other parts. Certainly the wet weather is having an impact on the corn market where prices are firm.
July wheat futures rose 39 USc to $US9.915 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade on Friday.
Very dry weather has been reported from the western parts of Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas, where 54% of all US winter wheat is grown: these areas have had no rain for the past month, unlike the eastern Midwest (including Illinois and Ohio), where six times the normal rain has been reported in recent weeks, hitting the largest producers of soft red-winter varieties.
The July contract fell 0.5% last week, with all of tha
