Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Stocks fall after new Japan earthquake

Global equities fell after a strong earthquake shook Japan and the euro fell against the dollar as the European Central Bank raised rates but signaled it was not necessarily the start of a round of hikes.

US and European stocks fell after the earthquake measuring 7.4 shook northeast and eastern Japan. A tsunami warning was issued for the northeastern coast, an area badly hit by March's earthquake.

European stocks ended down 0.2% and the dollar extended losses against the yen. Nikkei futures were down 1.8%. Japan is the world's third-largest economy and investors feared the new quake could harm global recovery.

"We started to drop on this earthquake news out of Japan. It seems to be generating a bit of jitteriness and has caused people to take a bit of profit," said Nick Kalivas, senior equity index analyst at MF Global in Chicago.

"In a couple hours from now if it looks like damage is minimal, the market the will go back to trading economics as opposed to earthquakes."

European shares had earlier gained after Portugal's request for aid fostered hopes the region's debt crisis will be staunched. The pan-European European FTSEurofirst 300 stock index was down 0.2%. Portugal's stock market bucked the trend, the PSI 20 index up 1.2%.

The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 36.63 points, or 0.29%, to 12,390.12. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index dropped 2.34 points, or 0.18%, to 1,333.20. The Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 0.95 points, or 0.03%, to 2,798.87.

World stocks as measured by MSCI gave up 0.3%.

Rate hike

The ECB raised rates by 25 basis points to 1.25%to counter firming inflation pressures. ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet said it was not necessarily the start of a series of similar steps, disappointing some who had expected a more hawkish tone.

"This makes the ECB the first major developed economy central bank to hike rates, and the decision will cement its reputation as a single-minded inflation fighter," said ABN Amro economist Nick Kounis.

"The hike is unwelcome for peripheral countries, but arguably the core member states were in need of this move already some time ago. In that sense, the timing of the increase is a balancing act, which is part and parcel of the one-size-fits-all monetary policy," he added.

The euro was down 0.5% on the day at USD 1.4268, off a more than 14-month high of USD 1.4350 touched on Wednesday. Spot gold hit a new record at USD 1,464.80 an ounce following Trichet's comments.

It was the first rate increase since 2008 and followed a day after Portugal's caretaker government requested European Union aid at the urging of leading bankers. They wanted a bailout to help the economy and safeguard its banking system.

Portugal said it will make the formal request for aid later on Thursday. The rescue package could reach 85 billion euros (USD 122 billion).

Spain vowed it would not follow Portugal in seeking a bailout. A successful Spanish bond auction suggested markets do not fear contagion at the moment.

Investors got more signs of a firming labor market as new US claims for unemployment benefits fell slightly more than expected last week. Other data showed March was not as bad as expected for many US retailers even in the face of higher gasoline prices.

Among commodities, spot gold was recently bid at USD 1,464.12 an ounce after hitting a new peak, while Chicago corn futures reached a fresh all-time high at USD 7.73-1/4 before falling from the peak.


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