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May-31-2010 05:17:09 AM
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May-30-2010 11:43:15 PM
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Liberty Reserve,Webmoney,Pecunix
From now on you can withdraw your E-currencies Money available balances directly into your bank account. The same minimum withdrawal amount requirement of $500.00 (plus the fixed $30.00 bank wire transfer fee) applies.
May-30-2010 10:47:46 PM
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Dollar Suffers from Fed Rates Policy
After the Federal Reserve stated on its interest rates decision today that they shall remain low for an extended period, a number of currencies gained versus the dollar, specially the euro as Standard & Poor's affirmed the nation's credit ratings and financial officials in the region are building viable strategies to solve Greece's budget deficit issues. The Canadian dollar is once again towards parity with its U.S. counterpart as appetite for risk influenced markets strongly related with the loonie rates, as commodities and stocks.
The signs of improvement in the U.S. economic fueled speculations regarding sooner than expected rate hikes, and today's statements from policy makers were quite a hard blow for the dollar, according to specialists. The dollar may lose its strength and may resume gains when odds of rate hikes increase again.
EUR/USD traded at 1.3764 as of 23:17 GMT from a previous intraday rate of 1.3687.
Apr-24-2010 12:56:37 AM
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GBP Drops as UK May Have Budget Concerns
The Great Britain pound's strength was curbed by the speculation that that the U.K. will be the next target for the concerns about the major budget deficit as the worries about the Greek budget are retreating because the Greece's crisis appears to be resolved.
The rescue package, issued by the European Union and priced as much as 45 billion euros (or $61 billion), eased concerns about the ability of Greece to deal with its debt and made traders to look for another country with fiscal crisis severe enough to damage the economy and hurt its currency. And it seems that such country should be the U.K. with its deficit climbing as high as 11.8 percent of gross domestic product the last fiscal year and closing near the Greek budget shortage, that of 12.9 percent in the previous year.
The analysts consider the economic situation in the Britain to be worse than in Italy, Spain and Portugal. And a prospect for the improving situation is not supported by the opinion polls, which suggest that the forthcoming election may result in stalemate, leaving the country without the government strong enough to deal with the budget shortage.
GBP/USD traded at 1.5378 as of 17:28 GMT down from the opening price of 1.5448. EUR/GBP traded near 0.8830 after it opened at 0.8821
Apr-24-2010 12:55:53 AM
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Financial Report: Feb-7-2010 12:52:26 AM
Financial Report: Feb-7-2010 12:52:26 AM
Account Balance: $5,239,307.88
$4,224,894.69 of PayPal
$672,951.69 of Pecunix
$341,461.50 of LibertyReserve
Earned Total: $566,557.56
Pending Withdrawal: $78,416.00
Withdrew Total: $967,285.21
Active Deposit: $1,854,502.69
Last Deposit: $16,281.50 Feb-7-2010
Total Deposit: $2,012,355.61
Feb-7-2010 01:00:44 AM
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STOCK FUTURES SIGNAL REBOUND AFTER SELLOFF
Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, January 20, 2010. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
(Reuters) - Stock index futures pointed to a rebound on Wall Street on Monday following last week's sharp sell-off, with futures for the S&P 500 up 0.82 percent, Dow Jones futures up 0.74 percent and Nasdaq 100 futures up 0.51 percent at 4:15 a.m. EST.
Embattled Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke edged closer to winning support for a second term after the Senate's Republican leader predicted confirmation and Democrats aimed to have a vote this week.
Bernanke's prospects appeared shaky last week when two Senate Democrats announced their opposition. Uncertainty on Bernanke's confirmation rattled investors, contributing to the worst three-day slide for U.S. stocks in 10 months.
Tech and consumer electronics stocks will be in the spotlight on Monday, ahead of quarterly results from Apple and Texas Instruments and after Dutch conglomerate Philips posted forecast-beating results while telecoms gear maker Ericsson reported quarterly core operating profit in line with market expectations.
Sam's Club, the warehouse club division of Wal-Mart Stores Inc, is cutting roughly 11,200 jobs, or about 10 percent of its workforce, as it outsources in-store product demonstrations and eliminates positions used to recruit new business members.
Cisco Systems' chief executive said on Monday he expected the spat between Google Inc. and China to be resolved, saying the issue was part of a "natural give and take."
Novartis AG's bid to buy out minority shareholders in Alcon does not fairly value their holdings, one of the largest investors in the eyecare group said.
Japan's Nikkei average hit a four-week closing low on Monday, with exporters such as Toyota Motor Corp among the biggest losers, while European stocks were slightly down in morning trade, as investors took a breather after last week's steep three-session selloff fueled by the White House's plan to limit risk taking by financial institutions.
On the macro side, investors will keep an eye on monthly U.S. home sales data, due at 1500 GMT (10 a.m. EST).
U.S. stocks capped their worst three-day slide in 10 months on Friday on fears the White House's plan to curb bank risk-taking would cut profits, and tech shares slumped after Google Inc's disappointing results.
The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 216.90 points, or 2.09 percent, to 10,172.98. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index slid 24.72 points, or 2.21 percent, to 1,091.76. The Nasdaq Composite Index fell 60.41 points, or 2.67 percent, to 2,205.29.
For the week, the Dow dropped 4.1 percent, the S&P 500 lost 3.9 percent and the Nasdaq tumbled 3.6 percent. It was the worst week for the S&P 500 and Nasdaq since October and the worst week for the Dow since March.
Jan-25-2010 09:48:06 AM
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JAPAN MANUFACTURERS' MOOD BRIGHTENS
TOKYO (Reuters) - Confidence among Japanese manufacturers has recovered to its highest level since the financial crisis hit, as strong exports to resurgent Asian markets raise hopes of a steady global recovery, a Reuters poll showed.
The Bank of Japan, which wraps up a two-day rate-setting meeting on Tuesday, will likely decide to continue monitoring economic improvements and hold off on new policy initiatives while keeping interest rates near zero to help get the country out of deflation.
"Asian economies have proved to be stronger than previously thought with no signs of a slowdown yet to emerge. That supports projections that the global economy will continue to recover," said Masamichi Adachi, a senior economist at JPMorgan Securities Japan.
"This gives a good reason for the Bank of Japan to hold off on new policy initiatives. But the BOJ is in no position to scurry to unwind its unconventional easing policies because deflation is deeply entrenched in Japan and worries about the yen's rise persist," he said.
Responding to separate questions about growth and prices, half of Japanese firms said they expect domestic goods and services prices to fall for the next six months, as weak demand pushes the economy further into deflation.
Japan's exporters, a key driver of the economy, have benefited from a brisk pickup in demand from China and other fast-growing Asian economies.
But not all manufacturers were upbeat in the Reuters tankan poll, designed to be a leading indicator of the BOJ's influential quarterly tankan survey. Some leading exporters, such as automakers, grew more pessimistic due to the strong yen, which eats into the value of overseas earnings.
"The Japanese economy is on a recovery trend but there are worries about the impact from deflation and the yen's rise," said one respondent, an executive at a transport equipment maker.
Sentiment in the service sector improved for the first time in three months, although service companies are still much more pessimistic than manufacturers due to deflation and weak consumption at home.
The Reuters tankan survey of 400 big firms, of which 231 responded, showed that confidence at both manufacturers and non-manufacturers is expected to edge up over the next three months, but the pace of recovery is likely to be slow.
The poll has a 95 percent correlation based on data compiled since June 1998. The BOJ's tankan, which next comes out in April, may show continued improvement in big manufacturers' sentiment from the record low hit last year.
Overall, the manufacturers' sentiment index in the Reuters Tankan rose 8 points to minus 19, the best level since minus 14 in September 2008. It is expected to rise a further 3 points to minus 16 by April.
"The pace of recovery will likely slow down considerably because corporate profits are squeezed by price falls in Japan. It is difficult to expect manufacturers to turn optimistic solely on overseas demand," said Yonosuke Iwata, an economist at Dai-ichi Life Research Institute.
Service-sector confidence remains deep in negative territory, though it rose 5 points to minus 34. It is seen rising 3 points to minus 31 by April.
"Faced with uncertainty ahead, consumers are increasingly cutting back or holding off spending and only selectively buying low-priced goods," said one respondent, an executive at a retailer.
Japan has barely emerged from its deepest recession in postwar history, and the government is worried that deflation and weak demand may push the economy back into recession, which could warrant more aggressive policy action by it and the BOJ.
The BOJ may say after its two-day policy review ending on Tuesday that there is less chance the country will slip back into recession. It is expected to hold off on new initiatives, having introduced a new funding operation last month.
The Reuters tankan indexes are calculated by subtracting the percentage of pessimistic respondents from optimistic ones. A negative figure means pessimists outnumber optimists.
In the separate questions on growth, 70 percent of firms said they expect gross domestic product to expand by between zero and 1 percent for the next five years because of a rapidly aging population.
Jan-25-2010 09:47:07 AM
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BANKS MAY SHED PRIVATE EQUITY ASSETS IN OBAMA PLAN
NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama's plan to limit financial risk-taking could force banks, such as Goldman Sachs or JPMorgan, to shed parts of their private equity operations.
Among the proposals, which require congressional approval, is that banks or financial institutions that own banks would not be able to own, invest in or sponsor private equity funds unrelated to serving customers.
A number of banks have sizeable private equity interests, for example, JPMorgan's One Equity Partners, manages $8 billion of investments and commitments for the bank, while Goldman Sachs has a vast private equity business, and invests its own capital in its funds.
JPM and Goldman declined comment.
Still, banks would likely argue that those businesses are in customers' interests, observers say. For example, the bulk of Goldman's private equity is invested for clients.
"It is a moderate impact on private equity," said Steven Kaplan, a professor of finance at the University of Chicago. "Most of the money going in comes from clients rather than from the capital of the bank, or the employees."
The proposal could also impact fundraising by private equity firms, although banks only account for a small percentage of invested capital in funds.
Banks and investment banks account for around 9 percent of invested capital in private equity funds in the US, London-based research firm Preqin estimates. Preqin counts 102 US banks and investment banks in its database investing in private equity, although says it is doubtful that the proposals would apply to all of those.
"Banks in both North America and Europe have been exiting private equity for several years, and it will be much faster paced over the next 2-3 years," said David de Weese, partner at specialist secondary firm Paul Capital, although he said that it wouldn't be because of Obama's proposals.
"Most big money-center banks got into private equity as limited partners and/or co-investors alongside leveraged buyout funds to support their highly profitable leveraged lending business," he said. However, that need has declined as the number and size of LBO deals has shrunk.
There is also skepticism about whether the proposals would become bank regulatory law.
"It's an opening salvo," said one private equity executive who declined to be named. "It is not something that will happen next week and (the details) are so vague."
Jan-23-2010 12:03:22 PM
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BANK OF AMERICA'S GREGORY CURL TO LOSE RISK POST: REPORT
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bank of America executive Gregory Curl is expected to lose the chief risk officer post he has held since mid-2009 as new Chief Executive Brian Moynihan installs his own circle of close lieutenants, the Wall Street Journal reported in its online edition.
Jan-12-2010 11:04:54 PM
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Contrarian Investor Sees Economic Crash in China
SHANGHAI — James S. Chanos built one of the largest fortunes on Wall Street by foreseeing the collapse of Enron and other highflying companies whose stories were too good to be true.
As most of the world bets on China to help lift the global economy out of recession, Mr. Chanos is warning that China’s hyperstimulated economy is headed for a crash, rather than the sustained boom that most economists predict. Its surging real estate sector, buoyed by a flood of speculative capital, looks like “Dubai times 1,000 — or worse,†he frets. He even suspects that Beijing is cooking its books, faking, among other things, its eye-popping growth rates of more than 8 percent.
“Bubbles are best identified by credit excesses, not valuation excesses,†he said in a recent appearance on CNBC. “And there’s no bigger credit excess than in China.†He is planning a speech later this month at the University of Oxford to drive home his point.
As America’s pre-eminent short-seller — he bets big money that companies’ strategies will fail — Mr. Chanos’s narrative runs counter to the prevailing wisdom on China. Most economists and governments expect Chinese growth momentum to continue this year, buoyed by what remains of a $586 billion government stimulus program that began last year, meant to lift exports and consumption among Chinese consumers.
Still, betting against China will not be easy. Because foreigners are restricted from investing in stocks listed inside China, Mr. Chanos has said he is searching for other ways to make his bets, including focusing on construction- and infrastructure-related companies that sell cement, coal, steel and iron ore.
Mr. Chanos, 51, whose hedge fund, Kynikos Associates, based in New York, has $6 billion under management, is hardly the only skeptic on China. But he is certainly the most prominent and vocal.
For all his record of prescience — in addition to predicting Enron’s demise, he also spotted the looming problems of Tyco International, the Boston Market restaurant chain and, more recently, home builders and some of the world’s biggest banks — his detractors say that he knows little or nothing about China or its economy and that his bearish calls should be ignored.
“I find it interesting that people who couldn’t spell China 10 years ago are now experts on China,†said Jim Rogers, who co-founded the Quantum Fund with George Soros and now lives in Singapore. “China is not in a bubble.â€
Colleagues acknowledge that Mr. Chanos began studying China’s economy in earnest only last summer and sent out e-mail messages seeking expert opinion.
But he is tagging along with the bears, who see mounting evidence that China’s stimulus package and aggressive bank lending are creating artificial demand, raising the risk of a wave of nonperforming loans.
“In China, he seems to see the excesses, to the third and fourth power, that he’s been tilting against all these decades,†said Jim Grant, a longtime friend and the editor of Grant’s Interest Rate Observer, who is also bearish on China. “He homes in on the excesses of the markets and profits from them. That’s been his stock and trade.â€
Mr. Chanos declined to be interviewed, citing his continuing research on China. But he has already been spreading the view that the China miracle is blinding investors to the risk that the country is producing far too much.
“The Chinese,†he warned in an interview in November with Politico.com, “are in danger of producing huge quantities of goods and products that they will be unable to sell.â€
In December, he appeared on CNBC to discuss how he had already begun taking short positions, hoping to profit from a China collapse.
In recent months, a growing number of analysts, and some Chinese officials, have also warned that asset bubbles might emerge in China.
The nation’s huge stimulus program and record bank lending, estimated to have doubled last year from 2008, pumped billions of dollars into the economy, reigniting growth.
But many analysts now say that money, along with huge foreign inflows of “speculative capital,†has been funneled into the stock and real estate markets.
A result, they say, has been soaring prices and a resumption of the building boom that was under way in early 2008 — one that Mr. Chanos and others have called wasteful and overdone.
“It’s going to be a bust,†said Gordon G. Chang, whose book, “The Coming Collapse of China†(Random House), warned in 2001 of such a crash.
Friends and colleagues say Mr. Chanos is comfortable betting against the crowd — even if that crowd includes the likes of Warren E. Buffett and Wilbur L. Ross Jr., two other towering figures of the investment world.
A contrarian by nature, Mr. Chanos researches companies, pores over public filings to sift out clues to fraud and deceptive accounting, and then decides whether a stock is overvalued and ready for a fall. He has a staff of 26 in the firm’s offices in New York and London, searching for other China-related information.
“His record is impressive,†said Byron R. Wien, vice chairman of Blackstone Advisory Services. “He’s no fly-by-night charlatan. And I’m bullish on China.â€
Mr. Chanos grew up in Milwaukee, one of three sons born to the owners of a chain of dry cleaners. At Yale, he was a pre-med student before switching to economics because of what he described as a passionate interest in the way markets operate.
His guiding philosophy was discovered in a book called “The Contrarian Investor,†according to an account of his life in “The Smartest Guys in the Room,†a book that chronicled Enron’s rise and downfall.
After college, he went to Wall Street, where he worked at a series of brokerage houses before starting his own firm in 1985, out of what he later said was frustration with the way Wall Street brokers promoted stocks.
At Kynikos Associates, he created a firm focused on betting on falling stock prices. His theories are summed up in testimony he gave to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce in 2002, after the Enron debacle. His firm, he said, looks for companies that appear to have overstated earnings, like Enron; were victims of a flawed business plan, like many Internet firms; or have been engaged in “outright fraud.â€
That short-sellers are held in low regard by some on Wall Street, as well as Main Street, has long troubled him.
Short-sellers were blamed for intensifying market sell-offs in the fall 2008, before the practice was temporarily banned. Regulators are now trying to decide whether to restrict the practice.
Mr. Chanos often responds to critics of short-selling by pointing to the critical role they played in identifying problems at Enron, Boston Market and other “financial disasters†over the years.
“They are often the ones wearing the white hats when it comes to looking for and identifying the bad guys,†he has said.
Jan-10-2010 05:04:07 AM
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To Slow Growth, China Raises an Interest Rate
HONG KONG — China’s central bank raised a key interest rate slightly Thursday for the first time in nearly five months, in what economists interpreted as the beginning of a broader move to tighten monetary policy and forestall inflation.
After breaking stride a year ago during the global economic slowdown, the Chinese economy resumed galloping growth over the summer. Government investments, real estate construction and consumer spending are all rising briskly, thanks to a surge in lending by government-controlled banks.
Even exports have begun to recover despite continued economic weakness in the European Union and the United States, China’s two biggest overseas markets.
Raising interest rates may help discourage speculative investments by Chinese companies and individuals in real estate projects and other areas of economic activity. China’s dilemma is that higher rates may also prompt overseas investors seeking higher returns to redouble their efforts to push money into China, despite the country’s stringent capital controls.
The People’s Bank of China announced Thursday that the yield from its weekly sale of three-month central bank bills had inched up to 1.3684 percent. The yield had been stuck at 1.328 percent since Aug. 13.
An increase of less than 0.05 of a percentage point might sound small, but economists said it was a harbinger of more interest rate increases to come.
They cited expectations that consumer and producer prices would rise in the months ahead, particularly compared with low price levels a year ago, when demand temporarily slumped in China as well as the rest of the world.
“It is a turning point,†said Ben Simpfendorfer, an economist in the Hong Kong offices of Royal Bank of Scotland. “There is a convergence of events that will lead to higher rates.â€
The increase in the interest rate turned mainland China’s stock markets into Asia’s worst performers Thursday. The CSI 300 index of shares on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock markets slumped 1.98 percent.
Air freight capacity out of mainland China and Hong Kong was almost fully booked in December, according to shippers, making it likely that China would post strong exports when it released a flood of monthly and annual economic data next week. But in interviews this week, senior corporate executives voiced a range of opinions about whether this strength would continue into the new year, or whether the surge in December represented a flurry of restocking by retailers who went into the Christmas season with meager inventories.
Victor Fung, the nonexecutive chairman of Li & Fung, a Hong Kong-based trading and supply chain management company that is one of the world’s largest, said that overseas demand had not been strong enough to sustain the strength in China's shipments seen last month. But he added that his own staff was somewhat more optimistic than he is, as are some investment bank economists.
Thursday's slight increase in interest rates could prove even more significant if it marks the start of an effort by Chinese regulators to limit bank lending. Chinese banks have not only lent heavily at home, but stepped up lending in other countries as well, taking market share from Western banks hobbled by the global financial crisis.
Top officials at the People's Bank of China concluded an annual two-day policy review on Wednesday with a lengthy statement that had particularly strong cautions against bank lending to sectors of the economy with overcapacity or excessive energy use. Chinese bank regulators also warned banks in late November to show more caution in lending and raise more capital to underpin the surge in lending they have already done; the publicly traded Bank of China is widely expected to take the lead in raising money this year.
Thursday's interest rate increase is not the first since the bottom of the economic downturn. After cutting interest rates on the same 3-month central bank bills by 2.4 percentage points in the last quarter of 2008 as the world's financial system trembled, the People's Bank nudged up interest rates by 0.363 from late June to early August last year in a series of increasingly large weekly increases.
Jan-10-2010 05:03:23 AM
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ITALY PUTS SWISS HAVEN FROM TAXES UNDER SIEGE
LUGANO, Switzerland — Italy and Switzerland have been waging a quiet border war lately, and this picturesque town on the shores of an Alpine lake is caught in the cross-fire.
It all started last summer when Italy, struggling as ever with high taxes and huge government deficits, decided to crack down on tax evasion, which ranks, alongside soccer, as the great national obsession.
In the postwar boom, Italy produced millionaires as if on an assembly line, particularly in the industrial north, which snuggles up under Switzerland — an ideal place for the rich to shield their money from the prying eyes of the Italian tax collector. If Lugano had not existed, the Italians would have had to invent it.
A town of 57,000 people, Lugano has become the third largest banking center in Switzerland, after Zurich and Geneva. Stroll through the narrow streets of its old center and you will find just about every bank you have ever heard of.
And banking has brought affluence. The main shopping street, Via Nassa, features butchers, bakers or grocers no longer, but rather Versace, Bulgari and Bucherer, a jewelry chain with banks of Rolex displays.
Moreover, Lugano is the heart of Italian-speaking Switzerland, so Italian bank clients do not have to struggle with French, German or English.
“Swiss political stability, terrorism in Italy, led important Italian entrepreneurs to flee a fluctuating lira and a punishing fiscal system,†said Franco Citterio, 47, a former banker, now director of a local banking association.
What are now called “the troubles†here began when Giulio Tremonti, the finance minister under Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, a proponent of low taxes and fiscal discipline, announced his intention to “dry out†Lugano as a haven for tax evaders.
He had closed-circuit cameras installed along the Italian-Swiss border near Lugano to register the license plate numbers of Italian cars crossing into Switzerland. The owners of those cars would then be subject to audits by the Italian tax police. In October the Italian police raided branches of Swiss banks in Italian cities, including some from Lugano, in search of evidence of tax evasion, angering the Swiss.
But Mr. Tremonti’s biggest gun was the announcement of a tax amnesty that allowed Italians to repatriate assets from foreign bank accounts without fear of criminal prosecution and made them pay only a 5 percent penalty on the total.
Mr. Tremonti has experience with amnesties. In 2001 and 2003, in an earlier Berlusconi cabinet, he enacted similar measures that brought $25 billion back to Italy. A further $19 billion was declared by Italian clients of Lugano banks, though it remained in Switzerland.
But that yield has been dwarfed by the rich harvest this time. Mr. Tremonti recently announced that $136 billion had been brought back to Italy, showering Rome with a $7 billion tax windfall. He announced that the amnesty would continue, at least until the end of April, though with steeper penalties.
The threat to Lugano’s financial health is considerable. Of the $390 billion in assets in its banks, Mr. Citterio said, about three-fourths are held by foreigners. Of that, Italians hold an estimated two-thirds. By some estimates, up to four-fifths of that Italian money may be undeclared.
Last April, Switzerland concluded a dozen taxation agreements with major countries, including the United States, but negotiations with Italy are frozen.
Fulvio Pelli, 58, leader of the Liberal-Radical Party, the largest in the canton of Ticino, where Lugano is located, blames Mr. Tremonti. “It’s not acceptable,†he said, accusing Italy’s leaders of a “vendetta, a missionary zeal.â€
Others accuse them of hypocrisy. “When they were in business they brought their money to Switzerland,†said Stefano Fiala, 37, a managing director of a money management firm. “Now that they’re politicians, they go aggressively after Swiss banks.â€
Riccardo Dorna, 56, who runs a company that cuts stone for building sites, said the fault lay in Lugano. “The good side was, we had a strong financial sector,†he said. “Now, however, that’s the sector that’s hurting.â€
Fortunately for Lugano, the region has benefited from rapid growth in recent years in businesses outside finance, like computer technology and shipping. Italian fashion houses like Gucci and Versace now ship apparel and accessories worldwide from Ticino, relying on the Swiss over unpredictable Italian airports.
“Thanks to these structures, compared to other cantons, Ticino is not doing too badly,†said Luca Albertoni, 45, the director of the local Chamber of Commerce. Indeed, every day about 45,000 Italians, many of them well-trained technicians, engineers and money managers, cross the border to work in Ticino, returning to Italy in the evening.
Some here see them as bargaining chips in the border wars. In October, the newspaper of the conservative party, League of Ticino, urged the expulsion of 500 Italian day workers for every billion Swiss francs withdrawn from Lugano because of the amnesty.
Mr. Albertoni said the Swiss should stop blaming others for their problems. “Mr. Tremonti,†he said provocatively, “is doing a good job. It’s a Swiss problem, not an Italian problem. We lived too long with the illusion that we could forever take advantage of the Italian situation.â€
Jan-10-2010 05:01:42 AM
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ASIAN STOCKS MOSTLY HIGHER AHEAD OF U.S. JOBS REPORT
HONG KONG (AP) -- Asian stocks were mostly higher Friday ahead of a critical U.S. jobs report but China's market slipped after the country took fresh steps to slow lending and prevent its economy from overheating.
Most markets rose by less than 1 percent, helped by gains in big exporting companies in Japan and elsewhere after U.S. retailers issued upbeat holiday sales figures, raising hopes of recovering demand from American consumers. The dollar rose slightly against the yen and the euro while oil prices fell.
Investors were watching for U.S. jobs data due Friday that could shed more light on the state of demand from the world's largest economy for goods made in Asia and other exporting regions.
Analysts expect the economy's job losses to slow in December to 8,000. The unemployment rate is expected to rise to 10.1 percent from 10 percent.
Japanese shares led the region, with the Nikkei 225 stock average rising 116.66 points, or 1.1 percent, to 10,798.32.
Elsewhere, South Korea's Kospi added 0.7 percent to 1,695.26. Australia's market rose 0.2 percent and Taiwan's index was up 0.5 percent.
In China, the Shanghai index lost 0.4 percent to 3,180.47. Hong Kong's Hang Seng was up 0.5 percent at 22,383.69.
Investors there were rattled after China's central bank raised slightly the interest rate on its three-month bills, heightening concerns the government would soak up the liquidity that's buoyed asset prices over the last year.
The Dow rose 33.18, or 0.3 percent, to 10,606.86. The broader S&P 500 index rose 4.55, or 0.4 percent, to 1,141.69. It was the highest close for both indexes since Oct. 1, 2008.
The Nasdaq fell 1.04, or 0.1 percent, to 2,300.05.
Oil prices fell in Asia, with benchmark crude for February delivery down 38 cents to $82.28 a barrel. On Thursday, the contract fell 52 cents to settle at $82.66.
The dollar rose to 93.37 yen from 93.27 yen. The euro fell to $1.4308 from $1.4318.
Jan-10-2010 05:01:08 AM
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