World stocks jump on hopes of Europe debt plan

BANGKOK?? World stocks rebounded Tuesday as pledges by European officials to once and for all resolve the region's debt problems helped soothe market jitters.

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Oil prices rose above $82 per barrel while the dollar slipped against the euro and the yen.

European shares were sharply up in early trading. Britain's FTSE 100 gained 2.2 percent to 5,202.05 and Germany's DAX jumped 3.2 percent to 5,517.02. France's CAC-40 rose 2.9 percent to 2,943.36.

Wall Street, too, was set for a higher opening, with Dow Jones industrial futures advancing 1.1 percent to 11,095, while S&P 500 futures were 1.1 percent higher to 1,170.70.

The gains come on the heels of a strong trading in Asia.

Japan's Nikkei 225 shot up 2.8 percent to close at 8,609.95, a day after shedding more than 2 percent and ending at its lowest level since April 2009. South Korea's Kospi rallied 5 percent to 1,735.71. Hong Kong's Hang Seng jumped 4.2 percent to 18,130.55. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 index ended 3.4 percent higher at 4,004.60.

Benchmarks in Singapore, Taiwan, mainland China, New Zealand, Indonesia and Thailand were also higher. Stocks on main indexes in Malaysia and Vietnam fell.

Investor sentiment improved after European ministers told a meeting of global finance leaders in Washington over the weekend that they would take bolder and more decisive steps to pull Greece back from the brink of bankruptcy. The country has only enough money to last until mid-October.

Stressing the urgency of the situation, President Barack Obama on Monday called on Europe's leadership to move quickly.

Financial stocks were buoyed by hopes that a plan was in the works to prevent Greece from defaulting on its debts ? an event that might crush banks with significant holdings of the country's bonds and cause domino-style defaults in other indebted countries such as Italy.

Japan's Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. gained 4.3 percent. Commonwealth Bank of Australia Ltd., the nation's largest lender, rose 3.9 percent. Hong Kong-listed shares of Agricultural Bank of China, the nation's largest rural lender, jumped 8.7 percent.

But some traders remained skeptical, saying it was unrealistic to think that Europe would be willing or able to throw the amount of money needed to dig Greece out from under its staggering debt load.

"Some of these eurozone nations cannot be bailed out," said Tey Tze Ming, a trader at Saxo Capital Markets in Singapore. "There's not enough cash to go around," he said. "The European banks stand to take a lot of pain on their balance sheets, which is what all this nervousness is about."

Ming said he believes the timing is now right to buy gold, which plunged $45 an ounce on Monday to settle below $1,600 for the first time since July.

"Our scenario is: the European crisis is going to become worse before anything. Gold as a safe haven should come back," he said.

Energy shares were lifted by rising oil prices. PetroChina, the country's biggest oil and gas company, rose 5.4 percent in Hong Kong. Japanese energy explorer Inpex Corp. gained 2 percent. Australia's Woodside Petroleum was 3.6 percent higher.

On Monday, Wall Street saw its biggest gains in more than two weeks. The Dow Jones industrial average jumped 272 points, or 2.5 percent, to close at 11,043.86 ? the biggest gain since Sept. 7. The Standard & Poor's 500 rose 2.3 percent to 1,162.95. The Nasdaq composite rose 1.4 percent to 2,516.69.

Benchmark oil for November delivery rose $1.80 to $82.08 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract gained 39 cents to finish at $80.24 per barrel Monday on the Nymex.

In currencies, euro rose to $1.3520 from $1.3472 late Monday in New York. The dollar fell to 76.40 yen from 76.49 yen.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44681936/ns/world_news-asia_pacific/

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