Markets Finish Session On Highs Buoyed By Bernanke’s Comments| April 26, 2012


Overnight stocks finished near their highs after the US Fed reduced its forecast for unemployment coupled with robust earning released by the world’s biggest company Apple.

The Dow Index pushed on 89 points to close at 13,090 while the S&P 500 (see above chart) rallied 18 points, to finish at 1,390.69. Earlier in the session the German Benchmark Index finished the session up 1.76 percent at 6704 after a European Central Bank survey showed that credit standards are improving.

On the economic front the US Federal Reserve kept its key interest rate unchanged near zero until late 2014, but then boosted its outlook for economic growth for the year to between 2.4 percent and 2.9 percent.

The NZDUSD has traded up from lows of 0.8123 to recent highs of 0.8180 after the Reserve Bank of New Zealand left its official cash rate at a record low of 2.5 percent.

WTI crude oil futures finished a choppy session in the green getting a lift from US equities, WTI traded up from lows of 103.11 to as high as 104.58.

Gold initially tumbled USD$15 an ounce after the Federal Reserve finished their two day policy meeting, then recovered those losses and turned higher to finish the session at 1644.50.

INDICES

Last Traded

SPI 200 future 4405
S&P500 Index 1390
Dow Jones 13090
FTSE 100 Index 5718

COMMODITIES
Last Traded
Gold 1644
Oil (Nymex) 103.96

CURRENCIES
Last Traded
AUDUSD 1.0371
EURUSD 1.3222
GBPUSD 1.668
USDJPY 81.31
Source
Bloomberg, Dow Jones News
http://www.vantagefx.com/market-news/market-wrap/

It will be interesting to see what happens at the opening bell tomorrow.