Equities
Asian markets bounced on Friday, following Thursday’s slide. The Nikkei edged up .3% to 9110, the Kospi climbed .6% to 2002, and the ASX 200 rose .3% to 4408. The Hang Seng advanced .7% to 20735, and the Shanghai Composite inched up .1% to 2027.
Speculation of an imminent Spanish bailout lifted European banks 1.7%, and Spain’s IBEX 35 index surged 2.6%. The DAX climbed .8% to 7452, the CAC40 gained .6% to 3531, while the FTSE settled flat.
US stocks settled little changed as early gains evaporated. The Dow eased 17 points to 13579, the S&P 500 ended flat, while the Nasdaq ticked up .1% to 3180.
Research in Motion shares tanked 6.5% after service outages plagued customers across Europe and the Middle East.
KB Home surged 16.4% after reporting an unexpected profit.
Treasuries and Commodities
10-yea notes inched up 3/32 to yield 1.75%, while 30-year notes settled flat, yielding 2.94%.
Natural gas rallied 3.2% to 2.885, gasoline advanced 1.3% to 2.9425, and crude oil ticked up .5% to 92.89.
Copper rallied .8% to 3.789, gold rose .4% to 1775.60, while silver eased .1% to 34.638.
Currencies
Global currencies rose modestly against the Dollar. The Australian Dollar gained .3%, the Pound rose .2%, and the Yen edged up .1%. The Euro and Swiss Franc inched up fractionally.
Economic Outlook
No major economic reports are due on Monday.
Earnings are expected from Lennar, Red Hat, and Paychex.
-Bradley Welcher