Wall Street opened on the upside on Monday after billionaire investor Warren Buffett took a bite of tech giant Apple, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average rising 0.2 percent.
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ENERGY: U.S. crude oil rose 24 cents to $48.55 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
“The oil market has gone from nearing storage saturation to being in deficit much earlier than we expected”, the bank said, citing sustained demand and sharply declining production.
Though partially offset by solid retail sales data, the news that industrial production growth slipped to a year-on-year rate of 6 percent in April from 6.8 percent the previous month reinforced concerns over the scale of the slowdown in the Chinese economy. Apple rose $2.92, or 3.2 percent, to $93.45.
Overnight, the USA currency briefly spiked to 109.65 yen, its highest since April 28, after data showed US consumer prices rose the most in more than three years in April.
The stronger dollar also weighed on commodities such as oil, which saw USA crude futures lose 0.4 percent to $48.00 a barrel.
The Topix index rose 0.9 per cent on Thursday as exporters gained.
Ruralco Holdings recorded a 3 percent increase in profit for the first half of the year on strong growth in its agency services business.
DRUG DEAL: Anacor Pharmaceuticals rocketed 55 percent to $99.44, a gain of $35.43, after drug giant Pfizer announced a deal to buy the maker of a topical eczema treatment for $5.2 billion. Compared with the year before, overall prices rose 1.1 percent.
PAPER CHASE: Tribune Publishing soared $2.59, or 22 percent, to $14.06 after USA Today owner Gannett raised its offer to buy the rival newspaper publisher. The bigger offer comes one week after Tribune adopted a “poison pill” plan to help it remain independent. However, its shares are losing 2 percent.
France’s CAC 40 fell 0.3 percent, while Germany’s DAX shed 0.6 percent.
Another report showed USA industrial production posted the biggest increase in April since November 2014 after dropping the previous two months. The data suggest the credit-fueled recovery “cannot be sustained for long”, Citigroup said in a report. Minutes from the Fed’s April meeting showed most officials said a rate increase would be appropriate in June if the economy continued to improve.
North American equity markets turned sharply negative Wednesday after minutes from the latest meeting of the Federal Reserve Board indicated that the USA central bank may raise interest rates as early as June.
Asian shares fell Wednesday amid concerns that higher-than-expected USA inflation could trigger rate hikes.
Hong Kong closed down 1.45 per cent, while Sydney ended 0.7 per cent lower and Shanghai gave up 1.27 per cent by the close.
In late-morning trades, the benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is adding 101.57 points or 0.61 percent to 16,754.37, after rising to a high of 16,774.89 and falling to a low of 16,517.52 earlier.
Benchmark 10-year notes rose 1/32 in price to yield 1.7534 percent, down from 1.753 percent on Monday.
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The dollar fell as low as 108.73 yen after the GDP release, but then clawed its way back to a session high of 109.39 yen. Gold rose $2.70 to $1,276.90 an ounce and silver gained 10 cents to $17.25 an ounce.
