Morning market wrap: US hiring buoys markets

There was good news in the northern hemisphere overnight with US companies increasing hiring, buoying markets and reversing a downward trend over the past week. Growing numbers of creditors indicated they would accept the bond swap.

Reports indicate 58% of Greek creditors will accept the bond swap haircut, but more need to comply to avoid default. The decision deadline is tonight.

Wall Street

On the New York Stock Exchange, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.66% or 83.71 points to 12842.90. The S&P500 Index was up 0.76% or 10.25 points to 1353.61.

The tech-heavy NASDAQ Index jumped 0.86% or 25.17 points to 2935.49 on the back of the new iPad announcement overnight.

The West Texas Intermediate (WTI) oil price rose and is now trading 1.42% up at USD$106.19 a barrel. Gold rose 1.72% to US$1685.80 an ounce.

The Australian dollar rose slightly, with one Australian dollar buying $USD1.0591.

Europe

UK and European stocks were all flat, with slight rises overnight.

London FTSE 100 closed up 0.44%, or 25.61 points, to 5791.41.

Frankfurt DAX closed up 0.57% to 6671.11.

The European blue-chip Stoxx50 index rose 0.71%, or 17.25 points, to 2460.77.

News

A new iPad was announced overnight in San Francisco. The new tablet will include voice dictation, an A5X chip that enables better graphics and a 9.7-inch screen with more pixels than a high-definition television, It will run on “long-term evolution” (LTE) wireless networks, which deliver data faster. More