Global Stock Markets See Positive Morning Trade

By Stewart Douglas

World stock markets enjoyed a morning of widely positive trading, off the back of fresh hopes that the Federal Reserve would further cut interest rates at their next policy meeting to reflect poor results from within the US.

Upon release of figures suggesting that demand for US durable goods had fallen despite the sharp drop in the value of the dollar, analysts had turned to the stock markets in strength rather than in fear, hoping the news would prompt a further rate cut when the Federal Reserve meet to decide monetary policy at the start of next month.

The move comes after the Federal Reserve announced it would take all macroeconomic results very seriously over the immediate period in order to best judge interest rate policy for the next month, as a means of gaining more of an understanding about the condition of the market and the wider US economy.

As a result, analysts on the Dow Jones were jubilant through the morning’s trade despite the negative results, gaining 9.51 points up to 13887.7 by mid morning.  The sister NASDAQ exchange was up by 6.51 points to 2705.5, whilst the S&P 500 was up 4.01 to 1529.4.

By mid afternoon trading in Europe, all the markets had seen strong growth in a week which has been very positive for the wider US economy. With Germany boasting lower unemployment and the French economy in a seemingly rapid turnaround under President Sarkozy, investors were more than happy to increase their stock holdings.

In Frankfurt, the DAX exchange was up by 35.42 points by mid afternoon to 7839.6, cementing the gains of earlier in the week to rest nicely.  The CAC 40 exchange in Paris was also up on the day, albeit seeing more substantial gains in proportion, up 45.76 points to 5736.5 by the same period.

The FTSE 100 in London was amongst the major movers of the day, enjoying resounding trade upwards of 63.70 by 15.00, as investors saw confidence restored after the sell offs of last week.