French stocks fell with European equities as the market reopened after Paris suffered the worst terror attacks in Europe’s history in more than a decade.
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The common currency also fell to as low as 130.66 yen, its lowest since late April.
Shayne Heffernan Funds Manager at HEFFX holds a Ph.D.in Economics and brings with him over 25 years of trading experience in Asia and hands on experience in Venture Capital, he has been involved in several start ups that have seen market capitalization over $500m and 1 that reach a peak market cap of $15b.
Trader John Panin, center, works on the floor of the NY Stock Exchange, Monday, November 16, 2015.
U.S. stock index futures turned positive, indicating Wall Street was likely to open higher. European bourses were trading narrowly mixed at midday.
WALL STREET: On Friday, before the attacks happened, a streak of six consecutive weeks of gains was broken on fears the holiday shopping season will be a dud.
KEEPING SCORE: The Dow Jones industrial average rose 78 points, or 0.5 percent, to 17,323 as of 12:07 p.m. Eastern Time. Paris’s CAC 40 index, however, fell 0.2 percent.
“Investors think that the attacks in Paris would have little impact on the global economy in the long-term”, said Hikaru Sato, senior technical analyst at Daiwa Securities in Tokyo. “However, in the main markets, the fallout from the terror attacks is likely to be short-lived”, said Mr Evan Lucas, strategist at IG Markets. “The small upside we’re seeing in the S&P 500 is reflective of that”. That could increase the likelihood that the Federal Reserve will begin raising interest rates from historic lows as early as next month. Consumer discretionary stocks were among the biggest gainers. If completed, the deal would make Marriott the world’s largest hotelier by a wide margin. Shares in Marriott lost 35 cents, or 0.5 percent, to $72.37. Japan Airlines sank nearly three percent and rival ANA nosedived 3.5 percent, while Down Under Virgin Australia plunged 6.5 percent. However, all other London share prices pushed higher. Cabot Oil & Gas gained 69 cents, or 3.3 percent, to $21.43, while Murphy Oil rose 15 cents, or 0.5 percent, to $28.92. Australian shares gained 0.8 percent. Investors bid up shares in telecommunications companies and defense contractors.
Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 gained 0.2 percent to 19,676.77 points and the Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.2 percent to 3,611.10.
Britain’s FTSE 100 rose 1.7 percent to 6,251.30 and Germany’s DAX rose 1.8 percent to 10,909.94. Utilities and energy stocks edged lower.
The won fell 0.78 percent against the greenback, while the rupiah was down 0.44 percent and the Malaysian ringgit shed 0.34 percent. Natural gas and coal producer Consol Energy added 38 cents, or 5.1 percent, to $7.78.
Spot gold rose 1 percent to $1,094 an ounce, moving away from its low on Thursday of $1,074.26, which was its deepest nadir since February 2010. Indonesian flag carrier Garuda also retreated more than one percent, while Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific was 2.7 percent lower. US crude futures settled down $1.07 at $40.67 a barrel.
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“Risk aversion is on the rise and we are seeing broad-based United States dollar strength across the board and this may continue until the year end as recent economic data has also disappointed”, said Mitul Kotecha, head of Asian FX and rates strategy at Barclays in Singapore.
