[R]4:00PM NY – 10:00 PM Frankfurt – Rally in the U.S. leads markets in Europe and South America higher.[/R]

Strong earnings from Boeing, C.H. Robinson, Corning, and Amazon and robust durable goods order report propelled stocks in New York in record territory. New home sales rebounded in March to 858,000 annual level. European indexes advanced on the rally in New York. Bidding contest for ABN Amro led banking stocks across the region higher. Rising oil also lifted stocks in the UK and Norway. Italy, France, and Germany advanced 1%. Brazil led the advance in Latin America.

Bond Yield on 10-year U.S. bonds closed at 4.648% and 30-year bond at 4.831%.

Oil in New York trading gained $1.26 or 1.9% to $65.81 per barrel on weekly inventory report showing a fall in gasoline supply. Natural gas advanced 9 cents to close at $7.689 per MBTU.

Gold fell 30 cents to close at $687.40 per ounce and silver declined $13.89 per ounce. Copper lost 2.41% or $194 to close at $7,894 per metric tonne.

Asian markets closed lower led by 1.24% loss in Japan, decline of 0.75% in Korea and 0.72% drop in Taiwan. Honda reported a sharp rise in profit. Export led companies in the region fell on lower dollar and weak read on the U.S. economic growth. KDDI fell 4% on reporting wider than expected loss. Thailand gained 0.7% and India rose 0.6%. Hong Kong fell 0.2%.

European Markets gained led by a surge in durable goods orders in the U.S. Italy, France and Germany gained 1% and U.K., the Netherlands and Norway advanced 0.6%. Royal Bank of Scotland and Fortis proposed a revised offer of $110 billion for ABN Amro sparking a bidding contest that may take a while to resolve.

Latin American Markets closed higher led by 1.3% rise in Brazil. Argentina advanced 0.5%, Chile rose 0.8% and Mexico dropped 0.25%. Wal-Mart de Mexico fell on lower margin, American Movil fell 0.5% and Telmex lost 0.55%.

Canada gained 0.5% on the strength in metals, banks and tech stocks. Alcan and Research in Motion led the main index higher, but by a fraction. Higher oil supported a mild advance in energy stocks.


[R]1:00AM NY, 5:00 PM Frankfurt European stocks gained ground on merger and earnings news.[/R]

European stock markets gained ground on Wednesday, driven higher by gains from ABN Amro and well-received earnings from Michelin, Merck KGaA and Shire. Banks were among the biggest gainers, led by 3.5% rise in the shares of ABN Amro. The Dutch bank advanced after a consortium led by the Royal Bank of Scotland said that it may offer about $100 billion for it, outbidding Barclay’s offer of $91 billion. Barclays shares closed up 1.6%, while shares for two of the three companies in the bidding group were weaker: RSB lost 0.8% and Fortis dropped 1.7%.

On the earnings news front, German pharmaceutical producer Merck KGaA rose 4.5% after the company posted a 37% rise in Q1 sales. Shire surged 5.2% after it said its Q1 profit doubled. Michelin rose 4.4%, boosting the auto sector, after the tire maker posted a 5.5% increase in Q1 sales. The U.K. FTSE 100 rose 0.5% at 6,461.90. The German DAX Xetra 30 advanced 1% to 7,343.08, the French CAC-40 climbed 1% at 5,947.33. It touched a session high of 5,962.39, a level not seen since February 2001, and the U.K. FTSE 100 rose 0.5% at 6,461.90.


[R]11:30AM Wall Street continued to trade higher, boosted by Pepsi, Boeing, and Colgate.[/R]

U.S. market averages traded firmly in the positive territory, with the Dow Jones briefly crossing the historic record of 13,000 points for the first time. The Dow continued rising to 13,036.99 before retreating below the 13,000 mark.

The solid gains for the blue-chip average were generated by stronger-than-expected earnings reports and robust economic data. Companies beating forecasts included soft drink maker PepsiCo Inc. (PEP: chart), materials manufacturer Corning Inc. (GLW: chart), consumer products company Colgate-Palmolive Co. (CL: chart) and Dow member Boeing Co. (BA: chart).

By sector, internet, multimedia networking, oil services and transportation led the market to the upside, while hardware and airlines stocks were the most notable decliners. Financial shares were also in focus after a consortium led by the Royal Bank of Scotland said it would bid around $100 billion for ABN Amro (ABN: chart). Shares of ABN Amro rose 4.2%. Among brokers, Merrill Lynch (MER: chart) lost 0.4% after it agreed to invest $3 billion in a Japanese bank.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was recently up 23 points at 12,977, after earlier crossing the key level 13,000 for the first time. The S&P 500 gained 5.5 points to 1,486, while the Nasdaq Composite rose 7.1 points to 2,531.

[R]New home sales increased 2.6% in March.[/R]
The Department of Commerce released its report on new home sales in the month of March on Wednesday, showing that new home sales increased in March after showing a notable decline in February but came in below analyst estimates. The report showed that new home sales rose 2.6 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 858,000 units in March from the revised February rate of 836,000. Economists expected sales to rise to an 890,000 unit rate from the 848,000 unit rate originally reported for the previous month. With the increase in March, new home sales partly offset the 4.2 percent decrease that was seen in February, although they were still down 23.5 percent year-over-year.