The Dow is up 7.6% from its March 10 low and up 4.1% for the week as the market gains some confidence about a turn around in market sentiment. Bernanke, along with JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon and Bear CEO Alan Schwartz,defended the $30 billion bailout of Bear Stearns before the Joint Economic Committee's inquiry into the legitimacy of the Fed preventing potentially "disastrous" outcomes for the broader financial system.
The Financials and the market jumped after Merrill's chief executive, John Thain, told Japan's financial paper The Nikkei, that they wouldn't have to raise any more cash in respect to losses related to the sub-prime debacle. He gave confidence that the industry would recover from the $232 billion in world-wide credit losses and writedowns. After the comments, the financials rallied with the most buying interest, finishing 0.4% up after being 1.4% down.
Thursday's Jobless claims up to levels not seen since September 2005. In the last week of March they rose to 407,000 from 369,000, but markets retained confidence in light of recent strength, the big banks signaling an end to their credit woes by raising new cash and Bernanke's reassurance about the Bears intervention. March ISM figures above expectations but a contraction in non-manufacturing activity remains. Index still under 50.
Both BHP and RIO up in ADR form overnight, 4% and 1.72% respectively. BHP having another good day – up 46c to 3855c and RIO up 110c to 13125c.
Metals mixed overnight – Nickel up 2.2%, Zinc down 1.5%, Aluminium down 0.9% and Copper was unchanged. Zinifex up 24c to 961c. Oil price down 91c to $103.92 taking a bit of breather after yesterday's big rise on lower weekly supplies. Woodside down 77c to 5587c.
Gold up $9.40 to $909.60. Newcrest up 49c to 3394c, Lihir Gold up 5c to 346c and Pan Australia up 3c to 101c. US Bonds up with the 10 year yield down to 3.58% from 3.60%.
