Thursday, July 19, 2012

Global shares climb on earnings

Global shares climbed to two-week highstoday as strong corporate earnings offset weak US economic data but concerns about Spain's financial troubles drove the euro broadly lower.

On Wall Street, a strong full-year outlook from IBM, bullish earnings from eBay and Qualcomm's expectations for a strong December quarter boosted technology shares. European equities soared to four-month highs also on strong corporate results.

The positive sentiment was tempered, however, by weaker-than-expected readings on US manufacturing, housing and labor markets. Adding to investor concern was a spike in Spain's borrowing costs, which stoked fears Madrid may eventually need a full-blown sovereign bailout.

The Dow Jones industrial average ended up 34.66 points, or 0.27 percent, at 12,943.36. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index closed up 3.73 points, or 0.27 percent, at 1,376.51. The Nasdaq Composite Index rose 23.30 points, or 0.79 percent, to 2,965.90.In Europe, shares rose 1 percent to end at 1,064.47.

In Asia, Nikkei share average ticked up today, helped by increased confidence in tech shares such as Advantest after Intel cut its profit forecast less than feared, and investors moved from defensives to riskier yet undervalued assets.

The Nikkei rose 0.8 percent to 8,795.55, while the broader Topix index's advanced 0.9 percent to 747.13, snapping nine straight days of losses, its longest losing streak in three years.