* Stocks rise on upbeat U.S., European corporate earnings
* Australian dollar hits post-float high vs dollar
* Gold touches an all-time high above $1,500/ounce
(Updates prices, adds details, comment)
By Wanfeng Zhou
NEW YORK, April 20 (Reuters) - Major stock markets rose on
Wednesday after strong corporate earnings in both the United
States and Europe, while gold jumped to record highs above
$1,500 an ounce in a broad commodities rally.
Weakness in the U.S. dollar and a well-received bond
auction from Spain pushed the euro to its highest in 15 months.
Currencies that benefit from rising commodity prices gained,
with the Australian dollar at a post-float high and the
Canadian dollar hitting a 3-1/2-year high.
Strong profits and outlooks from companies including
chipmaker Intel bolstered economic optimism and offset concerns
of sovereign debt problems on both sides of the Atlantic that
heightened after Standard & Poor's on Monday downwardly revised
its outlook for the United States' prized AAA credit rating.
"It isn't just the good reports, but also the encouraging
comments about how things look for the remainder of the year,"
said Mark Luschini, chief investment strategist at Janney
Montgomery Scott in Philadelphia.
"This is a testament to the strength of earnings we can
expect to come out from here," added Luschini, who helps
oversee $53 billion and owns Intel shares.
World equities, as measured by the MSCI All-Country World
Index <.MIWD00000PUS> advanced 2 percent, extending the
previous session's 0.5 percent rise and further recovering from
Monday's 1.6 percent loss.
Intel <INTC.O> posted higher than expected sales and
forecast quarterly revenues well above Wall Street's estimates,
while the world's biggest cosmetics group, L'Oreal <OREP.PA>,
and carmaker PSA Peugeot Citroen <PEUP.PA> also came in with
robust figures.
Major U.S. stock indexes soared. The Dow Jones industrial
average <> was up 194.36 points, or 1.58 percent, at
12,460.88. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.SPX> was up 17.81
points, or 1.36 percent, at 1,330.28. The Nasdaq Composite
Index <> was up 55.51 points, or 2.02 percent, at
2,800.26.
Japan's Nikkei average <> ended up 1.76 percent,
snapping a three-day losing run. The pan-European FTSEurofirst
300 <> rose 1.9 percent to close at a one-week high.
Emerging market stocks <.MSCIEF> climbed 2.3 percent.
Societe Generale, however, said in a note that hedge funds
were cautious on U.S. equities, keeping short positions on the
S&P 500 <.SPX> and the Russell 2000 <>, though they were
net long on Japanese equities.
<^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Asset returns in 2011:http://r.reuters.com/zub29r
Inflation-adjusted vs. nominal gold price:
http://r.reuters.com/ren88r
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DEBT WORRIES
Gold <XAU=> breached $1,500 an ounce for the first time and
silver hit a 31-year high. Concerns about government debt
problems, inflation and turmoil in the Middle East also helped
boost gold prices.
Yields on 10-year Spanish government bonds <ES10YT=TWEB>
fell to 5.46 percent after Spain saw solid demand for 10- and
13-year bonds at an auction, though speculation of debt
restructuring by Greece forced Madrid to pay higher yields than
a month ago to attract investors. See []
The euro rose 1.3 percent versus the dollar to $1.4513
<EUR=>, pulling further away from this week's low around
$1.4155. The euro gained 1 percent to 119.58 yen <EURJPY=>.
Renewed pressure on Greece to explore a debt restructuring
has rattled peripheral debt markets in recent sessions, pushing
Greek and Portuguese bond yields to new highs. []
"All in all, relatively reassuring results providing no
indication Spain's decoupling from the periphery is under
immediate threat. That said, the risk of contagion has
certainly not been taken off the table," said Richard McGuire,
rate strategist at Rabobank.
Higher-yielding currencies rose, with the Australian dollar
<AUD=D4> up 1.4 percent at $1.0670 after hitting a post-float
high of $1.0692.
Against a basket of major currencies <.DXY>, the U.S.
dollar fell 0.9 percent to 74.370.
The soft dollar boosted commodities, with copper <CMCU3> up
2.5 percent. ICE Brent crude for June delivery <LCOc1> rose
$2.47 to $123.80 a barrel after surging to an intraday high of
$124.23. U.S. June crude <CLc1> gained $3.09 to 111.37.
(Additional reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak, Barani Krishnan
and Nick Olivari, Frank Tang in New York and Dominic Lau in
London;)
