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US stock markets up, European stock mixed

12 February 2010 09:01 (UTC +04:00)

Baku - APA-Economics. Stocks on Wall Street rallied across the board as a meeting of European leaders ended with assurances that a default by Greece will be avoided, National Business Review reported.

Increased monitoring of Greeceâ€™s finances was promised, though there will be no direct aid for now.

A better-than-expected reading of US jobless-claims data helped to lift the market, though some reports say the blizzards in the northeast has halted hiring and could affected some 150,000 jobs.

Reports on retail sales and business inventories were postponed until Friday due to severe weather.
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The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 105.81 points, or 1.1%, higher at 10,144.19, with 28 of the 30 component shares rising.

The S&P 500-share index was up 1.0% to 1078.47, while the Nadsaq Composite Index was up 1.4% to 2177.14.

The Canadian sharemarket put on another strong performance, with the S&P/TSX Composite Index rising 149.16 points, or 1.3%, to 11,435.49.

European shares ended mostly lower on lack of detail about the Greek bailout.

After rising for the past three sessions, the pan-European Dow Jones Stoxx 600 index ended the session up 0.4% at 241.84.

However, Spainâ€™s Ibex 35 index dropped 1.5% to 10,296.30, while the Greek ASE Composite index ended the day flat at 1940.31.

The French CAC-40 index declined 0.5% to 3616.75 and the German DAX index fell 0.6% to 5,503.93.

The UK FTSE 100 index ended the session up 0.6% at 5161.48, with commodity-related stocks helping to limit downside.