| Dow Jones Industrial, S&P 500 futures up |
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| Written by Will Peters | |
| Wednesday, 25 November 2009 12:14 | |
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Dow Jones Industrial Index set to open higher as global equities rally on back of weaker US Dollar. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (INDEXDJX:.DJI) futures are currently up 0.38% at 12:10 GMT. S&P 500 (INDEXSP:.INX) futures are 0.46% and the Nasdaq Composite futures are up 0.45%. Global equity strength is currently providing much of the upward impetus. Commodity prices have been providing much of the boost today after posting a rebound as the US dollar withdraws from yesterday's brief rally. Yesterday the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 0.16% at 10,433.71 points. US shares recovered some of their earlier losses but were still down at the close after disappointing news about US GDP growth. Revised growth figures showed the US economy grew 2.8% in the third quarter, and not 3.5% as was previously indicated. This led to speculation that growth is slow enough not to warrant interest rate rises which sent US bonds higher. The S&P/Case-Shiller house price index for 20 cities rose by 0.27% in September on a seasonally adjusted basis, after advancing 1.13% in August. Shares in JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America fell after rating agency Standard & Poor's said that nearly all of the world's big banks are weakly capitalised. There are also worries that Chinese banks may need to raise cash and their share issues could mop up billions of dollars from the market. Utah-based lender Zions Bancorporation is the worst performer on the S&P 500 after Citigroup advised investors to sell. Shares in computer supplier Hewlett-Packard fell despite positive quarterly figures. Management says that the economy remains challenging. The top performers among first-liners included chip-maker Analog Devices, after it said underlying earnings per share in its first quarter are expected to be no lower than 36c, versus market expectations of 28c. Also going well was medical technology firm Medtronic after it announced a 59% increase in quarterly profit on the back of strong sales of a new heart stent and diabetes monitoring equipment. 
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| Last Updated ( Wednesday, 25 November 2009 12:16 ) |