A slight wave of optimism started to spread through European and U.S. markets on Friday amid reports EU officials are discussing more measures to ease the euro zone debt crisis, which overshadowed earlier pessimism that dominated markets after yields on Italian bonds soared after a bond auction, reflecting the ongoing concerns that the European debt crisis is worsening.
U.S. markets returned to trading after Thursday’s Thanksgiving holiday, while U.S. markets will be closing early at 18:00 GMT, yet equity indexes opened higher and European indexes erased earlier losses and rallied amid reports that suggested EU officials are discussing dropping private-sector involvement from the bailout facility during talks of more changes to the EU treaty.
Moreover, investors were eyeing the Black Friday, which marks the beginning of the holiday shopping season in the United States, where expectations signal that nearly 152 shoppers will hit the stores on Friday, an increase of almost 10% from last year.
The U.S. dollar remained near its highest level in seven weeks against a basket of major currencies on Friday, but trimmed some of its earlier gains, where the U.S. dollar index was trading at 79.39, compared with the opening level at 78.26. The Euro erased some of its losses against the Dollar but remained lower, where the EUR/USD pair traded at $1.3282, compared with the opening level at $1.3329, the British Pound reversed its losses and rallied against the Dollar, where the GBP/USD pair traded around $1.5502 compared with the opening level at $1.5475, and the U.S. dollar rose against the Japanese Yen, where the USD/JPY pair was trading around 77.63, compared with the opening level at 77.18.
Stocks in the United States gained by opening on Friday, as the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up by nearly 0.90% to trade around 11,358, while the S&P 500 index was up by nearly 0.90% to trade around 1172. European stock indexes reversed earlier losses and rallied before closing on Friday, where FTSE 100 was higher by nearly 1.05% to trade at 5181 and the DAX was up by nearly 1.45% to close around 5506.
Gold prices erased earlier losses as well and were little changed from the opening level to trade now around $1694 an ounce and crude oil prices gained as well to trade around $97 a barrel.
Originally posted here
