Wall Street set to close higher after China rate cut


(MENAFN- ProactiveInvestors)The benchmark Dow Jones Industrial (INDEXDJX:.DJI) added 1% to 17660 while the Nasdaq Composite (INDEXNASDAQ:.IXIC) the tech heavy index surged 2.3% to 5033. The broader based S&P 500 index (INDEXSP:.INX) added 1.1% to stand at 2074. The move from China - its sixth rate cut this year -  comes at a time of unease about the globe's second largest economy and ahead of a possible quantitative easing programme in Europe and a tightening (rate rise) in the US. In China the one-year lending rate will be cut to 4.35% from 4.6% from Saturday. Chris Beauchamp at IG Index looked at the markets response: " The action seen in the past 24 hours has been more than enough to make up for the sleepy atmosphere that prevailed in the first half of this week. "Stock markets were already in robust form after Mario Draghi's appearance yesterday but a surprise rate cut (if a sixth cut in a year is a surprise) from China prompted the rally to move into a higher gear. "While the move is a recognition that the Chinese economy is slowing markets can apparently live with this if they believe that the PBoC is prepared to take steps to counter the weakness." In Germany the Dax (INDEXDB:DAX) closed up 2.9% and the CAC 40 (INDEXEURO:PX1) gained 2.5%. FTSE100 (INDEXFTSE:UKX) in London closed up 1.1%. On the corporate front Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) was a good gainer up almost 6.7% as a surge in sales at its web services division helped the online retailer post a surprise quarterly profit. The cloud computing business reported sales of $2.09bn in the third quarter up from $1.17bn for the same quarter last year - a 78% rise. American Airlines Group (NASDAQ:AAL) the world's largest airline  reported an 80% jump in profit in the September quarter driven by lower fuel prices. Shares eased 0.6% however. Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) jumped to a record high after solid progress in mobile and video advertising helped the new holding company for Google post a third-quarter earnings and revenue beat and announce a share buyback. The shares were up over 6.7% to around US$726 at the time of writing after touching an all-time high of $752.50. Net income rose to $3.98bn or $5.73 per share compared with $2.74bn or $3.98 per share a year earlier the California-based company said late on Thursday.


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