5:00PM NY – 11:00PM Frankfurt – 3:30AM Mumbai
Unemployment rate for the year 2006 reported at 4.6%, lower than average of 5.1% in the year 2005, a six-year low. Oil dropped 4% to close below $52, a seven-month low.

Yield on 10-year bond closed at 4.738% and the 30-year bond closed at 4.821%.

Gold lost 60 cents to close at $612.80 a troy ounce, silver decreased 3.5 cents to end at $12.410 a troy ounce and copper increased 0.90 cents to close at 265.50 cents per pound.

Oil lost $2.14 to close at $51.880 a barrel and heating oil declined 3.630 cents to finish at 148.920 cents a gallon. Natural gas decreased 47 cents to close at $6.285 per MMBtu. Gasoline went down 2.92 cents to end at 140.00 cents a gallon.

Asian markets closed lower as finance and brokerage shares paced decliners in Japan, Hong Kong and China. The leader of decliners was Taiwan with a loss of 1.04%, followed by Hong Kong with a decrease of 0.94% and Japan with a decline of 0.62%. The advancers were Thailand with a gain of 2.47%, India with an increase of 2.01% and Australia with an advance of 0.74%.

European markets finished higher led by France with an increase of 1.96%, Germany with an advance of 1.84% and Netherlands with a gain of 1.56%. There were no decliners. European stocks ended higher as the European Central Bank kept interest rates unchanged and gold and copper prices gained some ground. Russian market index closed 1.7% higher. Russian trade surplus for the first eleven months in the year 2006 rose 30% to $130 billion on 28% rise in exports to $420 billion. Russia’s foreign reserves jumped to record $303 billion at the end of the year 2006.

Latin America markets ended higher led by Mexico with a gain of 1.37%, Brazil with an increase of 0.79% and Canada with an advance of 0.45%. The only decliner was Argentina with a decrease of 0.45%.


1:00PM European markets closed steeply higher as ECB kept rates unchanged.
European stocks closed notably higher on Thursday as the European Central Bank kept interest rates unchanged, prompting rate increases are not expected in the following couple of months. A strong opening for U.S. stock markets also provided support. The German DAX 30 climbed 1.8%, the French CAC 40 surged 2%, while London FTSE 100 gained only 1.1% due to a surprising key interest rate increase to 5.25% by the Bank of England. Gains for the U.K. index were limited by the banking sector and home builders as investors worried about the ability of consumers to service debt. Mortgage banks HBOS and Bradford & Bingley closed lower, while the U.K.''s biggest home builder Persimmon lost 1%.

The broad market benefited from strength among resource stocks as copper and gold prices gained some ground. Mining companies BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto climbed over 3%. Exporter issues like technology shares made a strong performance, as the euro weakened vs. the dollar. Mobile-phone maker Nokia rose 2.2% and chip maker Infineon Technologies gained 2.2%. The retailer sector also helped boost European indexes. German retailer Metro Group rose 1.6% after it said 2006 sales rose 7.5% to around 60 billion euros, while home-improvement retailer Praktiker rose 2.6% after it said sales rose 4.2% to 3.16 billion euros in 2006.

Crude oil prices traded below $54 a barrel in a volatile session. Warm weather forecasts sent crude oil February contract down 27 cents to $53.75 a barrel. Heating oil slipped to $1.5238 a gallon, while gasoline lost nearly a cent to $1.4325. Natural gas slipped 10 cents to $6.652 per 1,000 cubic feet. London Brent slipped 24 cents to $53.45. The U.S. dollar traded mixed against its major currency rivals. The euro was quoted at $1.2887, down from $1.2935. The dollar bought 120.62 yen, up from 119.56. The British pound was quoted at $1.9398, up from $1.9324. European gold prices were mixed. In London, gold traded at $614.60 per troy ounce, up from $609.95. In Zurich, the precious metal traded at $611.70 per ounce, up from $606.40. Silver closed at $12.48, up from $12.30.


11:30AM Market sharply advanced, boosted by tech and oil stocks.
U.S. stocks rallied on Thursday, helped by tech shares which boosted the Nasdaq 1% and oil company shares that rebounded after investors turned to bargain hunting. A bigger-than-expected drop in jobless claims indicated that the economy wasn''t slowing pace too quickly. Crude oil prices dropped as low as $52.94 a barrel after Russia resumed pumping crude through a pipeline to Europe and U.S. Shares of oil majors Exxon Mobil (XOM: chart) and Chevron (CVX: chart) gained more than 2% each. Genentech (DNA: chart) lifted optimism about corporate profits after reporting 75% earnings increase in Q4. Company’s stock rose 3.7%.

In other corporate news, Amdocs Ltd. (DOX: chart), a maker of customer-service software, slipped 10.8% after cutting its revenue forecast for 2007. Quest Software (QSFT: chart), application and database-management software maker, rose 3.8% after a positive analyst comment. In late morning trading, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 90.60, or 0.73%, to 12,532.76. The Standard & Poor''s 500 index was up 11.69, or 0.83%, at 1,426.54, and the Nasdaq composite index advanced 29.55, or 1.20%, to 2,488.88. Bonds fell as the drop in jobless claims pointed to a healthy economy. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note rose to 4.71% from 4.69% late Wednesday.


10:30AM NY 9:30 PM Mumbai Indian benchmark surges on Infosys Q3 earnings.
The Sensex on BSE finished with a gain of 268.55 points, or 2.01% at 13,630.71. The market-breadth was very strong as there were almost two advancers for every decliner. As 1,759 stocks advanced, 886 declined and 57 were unchanged. Of the 30 stocks in the Sensex, only two declined, while the rest advanced. The turnover on BSE was Rs 4,414 crore, as compared to Rs 4,131 crore on Wednesday. The turnover on NSE was Rs 9,854.7 crore, higher than Rs 8,572.23 crore on Wednesday.

Trading highlights

Infosys was in the limelight today, as it reported record profit in Q3 after banks and insurers increased orders. Net income rose 52% to 9.83 billion rupees ($221 million), or 17.24 rupees a share, in the quarter ended Dec. 31, matching the forecasts. Still, the company said that the rate, at which workers quit, increased to 13.5% from 10.8% a year earlier. The appreciation of the rupee reduced operating margin by 200 basis points. Growth in Europe, growth in package implementation, growth in product revenue and growth in the clients contributed to the strong results. Infosys, which had slipped to a low of Rs 2,100 in early trade rebounded after posting Q3 results, and ended 0.30% higher at Rs 2,175 on trading of 10.47 lakh shares.

Economic news

Goldman Sachs, financial services company, announced that it will start its brokerage operations in India this year. Standard and Poor''''s stated that it may downgrade British telecom company Vodafone if its proposed bid for Hutchison Essar Ltd goes beyond $19 billion.