NEW YORK -- A positive start to the corporate earnings season and a
sharp improvement in China's monthly trade helped boost world markets
Thursday.
The euro jumped on news the European Central Bank
decided not to cut interest rates.Stock indexes rose after a handful of
better-than-expected results from U.S. companies sparked gains on Wall
Street. Consumer products maker Helen of Troy, whose brands include Dr.
Scholl's and Vidal Sassoon, reported a 15% profit increase. Electronic
payments processor Global Payments said its fiscal second-quarter
earnings rose nearly 15%, beating analyst expectations.
A rebound
in trade figures for China, the world's second-largest economy, also
suggested a recovery in global demand, lifting investment sentiment.
Export growth more than quadrupled in December from November's level, to
14.1%. Imports rose 6% after failing to grow at all in November.
By
midafternoon in Europe, Britain's FTSE 100 was up 0.2% to 6,111.62
while Germany's DAX rose 0.5% to 7,761.99. France's CAC-40 was flat at
3,718.40.
Wall Street was also poised for gains. Dow Jones
industrial futures rose 0.4% to 13,380 while S&P 500 futures added
0.5% to 1,462.80.
The euro jumped 1% to $1.3195 after the ECB left
its interest rate at the record low of 0.75% and said it had not even
considered the possibility of a cut. A currency's value usually tracks
expectations of interest rates.
In a press conference, ECB
President Mario Draghi said the eurozone economy should start to grow
again later this year. He added, however, that the region has yet to
reach a turning point and that governments must press on with savings
cuts.
Earlier in Asia, Japan's Nikkei 225 index rose 0.7% to close
at 10,652.64. South Korea's Kospi added 0.8% to 2,006.80. Australia's
S&P/ASX 200 advanced 0.3% to 4,723. Benchmarks in Singapore, Taiwan
and New Zealand also rose.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 0.6% to
23,354.31 following a decision by the China Securities Regulatory
Commission to allow some initial public offerings of mainland companies
to be carried out in Hong Kong.
The move is an effort to clear a
backlog of IPOs that the understaffed CSRC cannot handle, said Francis
Lun, managing director of Lyncean Holdings in Hong Kong.
"It's a
practical way to handle an emergency problem," Lun said. It will boost
the Hong Kong exchange's market capitalization by one-third, he said.
A
weakening yen helped propel Japan's export-reliant carmakers higher. As
the dollar rose another 0.3% against the yen, to 88.18 yen, shares in
Mazda Motor Corp. soared 10.2%. Honda Motor Co. gained 2.5%.
Hong
Kong-listed Aluminum Corp. of China surged 6.5% a day after U.S.
aluminum giant Alcoa forecast demand would grow 7% in 2013, up from a 6%
gain in 2012.
Benchmark crude oil contract for February delivery
was up $1.15 to $94.25 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York
Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell 5 cents to close at $93.10 per
barrel on the Nymex on Wednesday.
In currencies, the euro rose to $1.3101 from $1.3053.
Associated Press