9:45AM U.S. stocks opened slightly higher, helped by strong inflation data.

Wall Street opened slightly higher on Thursday after a stronger-than-expected inflation reading failed to spook the bond market. The Labor Department said wholesale prices rose 0.9% in May. Energy prices jumped 4.1%, the biggest increase in six months. Excluding food and energy, producer prices rose 0.1%. Investors had expected smaller increases of 0.6% on the headline PPI and a 0.1% increase for the core PPI. The dollar rallied to a new 4 1/2-year high vs. the yen and rose against the euro after the inflation data.

Among stocks in focus, Goldman Sachs and Bear Stearns came under pressure after their quarterly earnings raised concern about their subprime mortgage businesses. Goldman Sachs (GS: chart) fell 2.5%, despite reporting better-than-expected increase in quarterly earnings. Bear Stearns (BSC: chart) slipped 1.5%.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 27 points at 13,509. The blue-chip average was supported by more than 1.5% advance in the shares of AT&T Inc. (T: chart), General Motors Corp. (GM: chart) and Alcoa (AA: chart). Another gainer on the Dow was United Technology (UTX: chart) which gained 0.6% after raising its quarterly dividend by 21% to 32 cents a share.

The S&P 500 index rose 7.1 points to 1,522, while the Nasdaq Composite gained 16.9 points to 2,599. The benchmark 10-year Treasury bond actually rose 1/32 to 94 21/32, while its yield fell to 5.195%.


9:30AM London is higher at mid-day Thursday on renewed buying interests in large-cap stocks.

At mid-day Thursday, the FTSE 100 in London was 0.8% higher at 6,610, gaining of 50.5 points.

Advancers

Bradford & Bingley was the leading advancer in the FTSE. The mortgage bank gained 5.2% after Credit Suisse upgraded the stock to neutral and added that the bank would return 500 million pounds of excess capital to shareholders.

The mining sector surged in light of positive US economic data which showed a growing demand for metals and manufactured goods. Copper large-cap Rio Tinto advanced 1.7%, supported by the settlement of a decade-long tax dispute in Australia. BHP Billiton added 1.3%.

Centrica, the gas distributing company, a bid target of Russian Gazprom, gained a further 3.8% after Citigroup raised its rating on the shares to buy from hold and hiked its price target on the stock.

Man Group, the largest publically traded hedge fund in the world, gained 1.4% after news that it anticipated assets under management in Asia to grow by 10% to 15% over the next year or 18 months.

Shares in Punch Taverns rose 1.6% after it said it would redeem 460 million pounds worth of outstanding bonds and pay down debt by issuing up to 825 million pounds worth of floating rate notes.

Decliners

CardioMag Imaging was the only decliner at mid-day, plunging 90%. It lost more than 75% of its value this morning after the non-invasive heart disease testing group warned that full year operating losses will top $5 million.


8:30AM Asian markets advance Thursday, led higher by South Korea, China dips.

Asian markets finished higher on Thursday. In South Korea, strong program buying connected with expiry of futures and options in late session helped shares to end at a record high, with securities, shipbuilders and information-technology stocks in the forefront of advance. Kospi Index rallied 2.7% to 1,769. Gainers included Woori Investment & Securities which advanced 7% and shipbuilders Hyundai Heavy Industries up 5.9% and Samsung Heavy Industries rising 6.5%, supported by higher vessel prices.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 Average ended the session 0.6% higher at 17,842. News that Nippon Steel will increase its stake in Godo Steel supported stocks in the steel sector, while the increase of the dollar to a four-and-a-half-year high versus the yen buoyed exporters. Nissan Motor gained 1.4% and tech stock Toshiba soared 2.2%.