The US stocks leaped in the final minutes of the trading session after a report released showed that the European Union finance ministers are examining ways of co-ordinating recapitalizations of financial institutions.
The Dow finished the session up 1.44 per cent at 10808.71 after earlier falling as much as 251 points. The blue-chip index was down more than 200 points in the final hour of trading before recovering. The S&P500 jumped from afternoon lows of 1080.25 to close the session at 1123.95. It is down more than 20% from its intraday high in May, a threshold that many forecasters believe signals a bear market is under way.
The EURUSD traded up from overnight lows of 1.3143 to as high as 1.3370 after the Federal Reserve chairman said the central bank may start a new broad-based lending program to address a potential run on the U.S. financial system if the European crisis deepens.
The AUDUSD recovered after hitting its lowest levels in more than a year to trade as high as 0.9596 as investors saw some hope in Europe.
Gold futures traded down from overnight highs of 1678.50 to lows of 1595.40 as investors sold the metal to cover losses in other assets.
WTI oil fell to one year lows of 74.93 on concerns that fuel demand will drop as investors lose confidence in the US and European economies.
The volatility index which is measure of the implied volatility of S&P 500 index options dropped 10.19 per cent to lows of 40.00 after the release of EU ministers meeting in Luxembourg.
INDICES
Last Traded
SPI 200 future 3935
S&P500 Index 1080.54
Dow Jones 10508.37
FTSE 100 Index 4944.44
COMMODITIES
Last Traded
Gold 1624.60
Oil (Nymex) 78.23
CURRENCIES
Last Traded
AUDUSD 0.9590
EURUSD 1.3357
GBPUSD 1.5488
USDJPY 76.88
Source
Bloomberg, Dow Jones News