U.S. stocks rise as sentiment gains

U.S. stocks edged higher on Friday as growing sentiment that the worst of a deep financial crisis may have passed overshadowed glum data on the U.S. labour market and pared the safe-haven bid for bonds.

• Risk aversion receded, with gold falling slightly and crude oil barely gaining as the loss of 663,000 U.S. jobs in March failed to weigh heavily on sentiment.
• U.S. Treasury and short-dated euro zone government bond prices also fell on the perception of improving economic conditions and rising optimism that action taken on Thursday by Group of 20 leaders in London will help spur recovery.
• Commodities, marked by a 5 percent surge in copper to 5-month highs, rose on hopes of improved demand after the G20 leaders agreed on a $1.1 trillion package to revive growth.
• “At least for the moment, there seems to less demand for flight to safety, but I don’t know if this is going to be a pattern that is going to continue,” said Bill O’Neill, managing partner of commodities firm LOGIC Advisors.
• U.S. stocks see-sawed for most of the day but staged a late rally, sending the Dow to its best four-week winning streak since 1933, lifted by robust results from Research in Motion and comments by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.
• For the week, the Nasdaq shot up 5 percent, the Dow added 3.1 percent and the S&P500 gained 3.3 percent.
• The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI closed up 39.51 points, or 0.50 percent, at 8,017.59. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index .SPX added 8.12 points, or 0.97 percent, at 842.50. The Nasdaq Composite Index .IXIC gained 19.24 points, or 1.20 percent, at 1,621.87.
• European shares closed lower, with drugmakers and oil companies falling as contractions in the British and euro zone services sectors provided further evidence of recession on top of the U.S. jobless report.
• The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index of top shares fell 1.3 percent to 771.60 points. The index rose 7.1 percent for the week and is up more than 19 percent from a lifetime low on March 9.
• U.S. Treasury and short-dated euro zone government bond prices fell on the perception of improving economic conditions, which undercut the safe-haven bid for bonds.
• Investors continued to sell government bonds, notably shorter-dated euro zone paper, even as stocks gave back some gains in early trade a day after the European Central Bank disappointed analysts by cutting interest rates by less than expected.
• “Investors are more confident than they were that we could be at the bottom of the downturn globally,” said Nick Stamenkovic, bond strategist at RIA Capital Markets in Edinburgh. “That’s taken the shine off bonds, supporting the risk assets, particularly equities,” he said.
• The benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note fell 38/32 in price to yield 2.90 percent. The 2-year U.S. Treasury note fell 5/32 in price to yield 0.96 percent.
• Oil prices also see-sawed on Friday, hovering around $52 a barrel, with investors pulled by hopes that demand is picking up while data still shows a U.S. economy mired in recession.
• “The oil market is struggling between hope and reality, much like what you also see in other markets,” said Andy Lebow, a broker at MF Global in New York. “The reality is that there is a dismal demand picture and so it is hard for oil to sustain gains.”
• Optimism that the economy will soon turn curtailed losses. U.S. light crude for May delivery settled down 13 cents at $52.51, retaining most of Thursday’s $4.25 gain.
• London Brent crude gained 48 cents to $53.23 a barrel by 2:56 p.m. EDT.
• Gold prices dropped 1.3 percent. U.S. gold futures for June delivery settled down $11.60 at $897.30 in New York.
• “I think there are a number of things that have made people conclude that things are not as bad as they were a month or two ago,” said Standard Chartered analyst Daniel Smith. “But I think the optimism is a bit overdone.”
• The dollar rose against the yen after the U.S. jobs report was not as bad as many had feared and did little to dampen an improved appetite for risk.
• Gains were limited as the dollar tends to rise in response to bad news because investors see it as the safest store of value at a time when economies across the globe are shrinking.
• “There had been a degree of enthusiasm that perhaps the world economy has seen the worst, and the jobs data tempered that enthusiasm a bit,” said Vassili Serebriakov, currency strategist at Wells Fargo in New York.
• In late New York trading, the dollar was up 0.7 percent at 100.26 yen after rising as high as 100.37 yen, the highest level since November, according to Reuters data.
• The euro was up 0.2 percent at $1.3484 after dipping to $1.3366 after the jobs data.