US midday: Stocks recover from Spanish debt fears

Date: Thursday 05 Apr 2012

-Stocks steady on improving jobless figures
-Early losses on Spain fears

Wall Street cheered up this morning after starting the day with a major Spanish hangover.

Spanish bonds have been falling as the country faces ballooning debts and an unemployment crisis. Before the close in Europe the yield on benchmark 10 year Spanish bonds had climbed to 5.75%, reminiscent of the period last winter when the future of the euro currency appeared to be in jeopardy.

But while Europe is struggling the US recovery appears to be in full swing. Figures from the Labor Department showed unemployment claims fell 6000, to 357,000 last week, just higher than the consensus forecast of 355,000. That was enough for equities to recover significantly through late morning.

COMPANIES

Bed, Bath & Beyond rose an impressive 9% after revealing consensus busting fourth quarter profits of $1.48 per share.

Paint maker PPG was the second highest riser on the S&P 500, rising 3.3%. It also reported better than expected profits and told investors it was seeing encouraging levels of demand.

Constellation Brands (-13%), the world’s biggest wine seller fell after predicting earnings per share significantly below expectations.

OTHER MARKETS

Futures contracts on a barrel of West Texas crude gained 1.37% to hit $102.86 at 12:22 in New York.

The euro had dropped 0.62% against the dollar by 12:43 to sit at $1.3061.

BS

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