Wall Street gains slightly ahead of holiday

Equities markets in the Asia and Pacific region were mixed on Thursday, with the Australian and Tokyo markets mostly lower on the session but just about everyone else higher. In Singapore, the Straits Times Index added 0.39 percent to 3,345.86, while the Sensex gained 0.54 percent to 12,856.08 in India. In Australia, though, the Sydney Ordinaries dropped 0.26 percent to 6,063.4.

In Tokyo, the markets were lower on profit-taking after significant gains on Wednesday. The Nikkei 225 dropped 0.3 percent to 17,491.42, while the Topix index fell 0.6 percent to 1,720.72. On the other hand, the Mother’s market of small and mid-caps added 1.1 percent to 1,050.96. The banking sector was 0.6 percent lower as a whole, while real estate fell 2.2 percent as a sector. The retail and oil sectors also saw losses on the session.

Most of the European markets were nearly static as investors looked forward to the long holiday weekend. The FTSE Eurofirst 300 was up just 0.04 percent to 1,539,43. In Paris, the CAC-40 was also virtually flat, also rising only 0.04 percent to close at 5,741.38. The Xetra Dax in Frankfurt managed to add 0.37 percent to 7,099.91. In the airlines sector, Air France-KLM (Euronext: AF; NYSE: AKH) was higher on an upgrade from “hold” to “buy” from Deutsche Bank (NYSE: DB). Among carmakers, Volvo’s (NAS: VOLV; OMXS30: VOLV A, VOLV B) announced that it intends to rely on acquisitions for half of its target of 10 percent growth annually. News that Spanish builder Sacyr Vallehermoso (IBEX-35: VAL) will raise its stake in French builder Eiffage (Euronext: FGR) sent both higher and triggered bids rumors even though Sacyr insisted that it plans to keep its stake below the 33.3 percent level at which a bid is required to be made.

In London, the FTSE 100 added 0.51 percent to 6,397.3, while the FTSE 250 gained 0.22 percent to 11,915.9. Banks gained on the announcement that the Bank of England will hold interest rates at the present level of 5.25 percent for the time being. Meanwhile the gaming sector saw significant gains.

At just past midday in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.1 percent to 12,539.07, while the Nasdaq Composite added 0.3 percent to 2,465.65 and the S&P 500 gained 0.2 percent to 1,441.9. Investors were nervous ahead of last month’s employment numbers, due to be released on Friday, which is a holiday for the markets. Technology shares, especially those related to computers and the internet, were likely to have seen gains.

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