While you were sleeping: Stocks rise as some see value

While you were sleeping: Stocks rise as some see value

(BusinessDesk) March 30 - Equities on Wall Street rose as investors found value in beaten-down retail and technology shares.

The S&P Information Technology Index rose 0.5% and the S&P Retail Index climbed 1.1%.

Home Depot Inc advanced after the home improvement retailer said it would buy back US$1 billion of outstanding shares through an accelerated program.

In afternoon trading on Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 0.53%, the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index climbed 0.42% and the Nasdaq Composite Index rose 0.66%.

"A lot of stocks got taken down sharply as a result of what was going on in Japan, and very unfairly, particularly in the technology space -- and you are seeing technology and retail kind of lead the charge higher," Peter Kenny, managing director at Knight Equity Markets in Jersey City, New Jersey, told Reuters.

Even so, Lennar Corp dropped after the U.S. homebuilder posted a first-quarter profit, but a decline in revenue.

BP fell on reports the company's managers could face manslaughter charges following the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, which could lead to much higher fines over the disaster.

U.S. prosecutors were considering whether to pursue manslaughter charges against BP managers for decisions made before the explosion on the rig that killed 11 workers and caused the biggest offshore spill in U.S. history, a report from Bloomberg said, citing people familiar with the matter.

The U.S. dollar received a boost from comments by St. Louis Federal Reserve bank PresidentJames Bullard that the central bank's asset purchase plan should be curtailed.

Bullard told an audience in Prague that the U.S. economy was strong enough to trim the Fed's US$600 billion bond-buying program by US$100 billion.

The greenback rose 0.08% against a basket of major currencies.

In Europe, the Stoxx 600 Index rose 0.1% as rising metal prices boosted mining shares and concern about banks’ capital needs hurt financial stocks. The results of stress tests on Irish banks are due tomorrow.

Meanwhile, Standard & Poor's downgraded credit ratings of Greece and Portugal. Bonds in both countries suffered as a result.

"Apparently the rating agency sees the risk of the ESM [European Stability Mechamism] triggering a situation when the debt is not safe," Silvio Peruzzo, an economist at RBS in London, told Reuters. "If a country defaults, the ESM, as a senior creditor, gets the money before investors and investors may take a loss."

The euro fell as low as US$1.4060 on the EBS trading platform and last traded at US$1.4088.

Crude oil prices rose, helped by gains in U.S. heating oil and gasoline futures as well as expectations that weekly inventory reports would show declining U.S. stockpiles.

Turmoil in the Middle East continued. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad accepted his government's resignation on Tuesday after nearly two weeks of pro-democracy unrest, though the move was unlikely to appease protesters.

Brent crude futures for May delivery rose 51 cents to US$115.31 a barrel by 1611 GMT.

U.S. May crude futures rose 50 cents to US$104.48 a barrel.

(BusinessDesk)

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