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US market indices go up

28 January 2009 07:26 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Vahab Rzayev - APA-Economics. By close, the Dow Jones industrial average gained 58.70 points or 0.72 percent to 8,174.73. The Standard & Poor’s 500 rose 9.14 or 1.09 percent to 845.71. The Nasdaq composite index gained 15.44 or 1.04 percent to 1,504.90.
U.S. Steel, the largest U.S.-based producer, said fourth-quarter earnings jumped as an acquisition boosted results. And American Express Co. reported profits fell 79 percent in the final three months of 2008, but the numbers weren’t as weak as some investors had feared.
In Europe, investors looked through a rise in German business confidence, skeptical that it could herald a turnaround in Europe’s largest economy anytime soon. The German Ifo Institute said its forward-looking business climate index rose to 83 points in January from 82.7 in December.
Even a rise in German business confidence was not enough to boost sentiment in Europe, where Germany’s benchmark DAX share index ended 0.08 percent lower at 4,323.42. Britain’s FTSE-100 index fell 0.35 percent to 4,194.41, while the French CAC-40 ended 0.03 percent lower at 2,954.53. All the indexes had been well over 1 percent lower earlier in the day.
The euro drifted higher to $1.3178 from $1.3137 late Monday. The British pound rose to $1.4152 from $1.3938, while the dollar slipped to 88.90 Japanese yen from 89.02 yen late Monday.