 Futures advance on bailout talk
(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-12-19 08:01
US stock-index futures advanced as investors speculated President-elect Barack Obama and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson will step up efforts to prevent the recession from deepening. General Electric Co rose 1.6 percent in Germany after an advisor to the president-elect said Obama may ask Congress next year to approve a stimulus plan of around $850 billion and people familiar with the deliberations said Paulson may ask Congress for the second half of the $700 billion bank rescue program. Exxon Mobil Corp gained 1.8 percent as crude oil rebounded from its lowest level in more than four years. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index has posted its biggest drop since 1937 this year as credit losses and writedowns at the world's largest banks surpassed $1 trillion and the US, Europe, and Japan entered the first simultaneous recessions since World War II. Futures on the S&P 500 expiring in March rose 0.5 percent to 907.9 at 11:35 am in London. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures added 0.5 percent to 8,827. "Government interventions to support the economy are starting to make an impact," said Andreas Nigg, who helps oversee $39 billion as a fund manager at Vontobel Asset Management in Zurich. "We may still see a Christmas rally." Obama, Paulson Obama may ask Congress next year to approve a stimulus plan of around $850 billion, an amount that has grown as the US economy sinks deeper into recession, an advisor to the president-elect said. Obama's transition team believes that the amount is necessary to reverse rising unemployment, said the advisor, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Paulson could soon exhaust the first $350 billion with the bailout that President George W. Bush's administration has pledged for General Motors Corp and Chrysler LLC. The Treasury chief is discussing with aides strategies to seek congressional approval for the rest of the Troubled Asset Relief Program, people familiar with the deliberations said. GE, the world's biggest maker of power-generation equipment, advanced 1.6 percent to $17.66. Exxon, the world's largest publicly traded oil company, increased 1.8 percent to $82.52. ConocoPhillips gained 0.9 percent to $53.91. The Conference Board's index of leading indicators, a measure of the economy's direction over the next three to six months, fell 0.4 percent in November, after a 0.8 percent decline in October, according to the median forecast in a Bloomberg survey. Take-Two Interactive Software Inc tumbled 15 percent to $10.31 after the publisher of the "Grand Theft Auto" video games unexpectedly projected a first-quarter loss and a profit shortfall for fiscal 2009. MEMC Electronics Materials Inc. fell 3.9 percent to $16.01. The maker of silicon wafers for the solar industry reduced its sales forecast, saying revenue will be as much as $425 million in the fourth quarter. That trailed the average estimate of $485 million from analysts in a Bloomberg survey. By noon in Europe, Britain's FTSE-100 was down 2.39 percent to 4,321.80, Germany's DAX gained 0.88 percent to 4,749.77, and France's CAC 40 was off 0.85 percent to 3,214.44. In Asia, Japan's Nikkei 225 stock average climbed 54.71 points, or 0.6 percent, to 8,667.23 after flitting in and out of negative territory in morning trading. Benchmarks in Australia, South Korea and Singapore also advanced. Agencies (China Daily 12/19/2008 page17) |
