U.S. stocks
climbed on Monday to approach a record peak, and European equity markets also
advanced, thanks to strong gains in the energy sector as oil prices touched
a
three-week high.
Brent crude
LCOc1 surged more than 3 percent to $48.30, its highest level in nearly three
weeks, as the dollar weakened and OPEC appeared closer to agreement on an
output cut when it meets next week. U.S. crude was last up 2.7 percent after
hitting a three-week high
Among U.S.
equities, the S&P energy index .SPNY gained 1.9 percent as the top-performing
sector, helping to push the benchmark S&P 500 index just shy of its
intraday record of 2,193,81 set on Aug. 15. The advance put the index on pace
to set a closing high.
"I am
quite surprised to see oil moving higher - every time we get these discussions
about OPEC agreements and production cuts, they always fall apart, nobody
sticks to them - the oil cartel is very shaky," said Randy Frederick, vice
president of trading and derivatives for Charles Schwab in Austin, Texas.
"What
ends up happening is you get people speculating, it pushes the prices up and
then it ends up coming back down."
The Dow Jones
industrial average .DJI rose
48.01 points, or 0.25 percent, to 18,915.94, the S&P 500 .SPX gained
11.17 points, or 0.51 percent, to 2,193.07 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added
31.23 points, or 0.59 percent, to 5,352.74.
The Nasdaq hit
an intraday record for a second day, reaching as high as 5,362.48, but market
participants cautioned that volume was likely to be light this week ahead of
the U.S. Thanksgiving Day holiday on Thursday.
The climb in
oil lifted European markets, with the STOXX Europe oil & gas index .SXEP up
2.2 percent. Europe's index of leading 300 shares .FTEU3 gained
0.3 percent. MSCI's all-country world index .MIWD00000PUS advanced 0.6 percent.
The dollar
.DXY fell 0.3 percent to 100.94 against a basket of major currencies, pausing
after a 10-day streak that saw it gaining nearly 5 percent. That rally was
fueled by expectations of policies by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump that
would lead to interest rate increases.
In similar
fashion, U.S. Treasury yields, which have soared in the wake of the U.S.
election, declined from one-year highs as the recent selloff tempted some new
buyers. Benchmark 10-year note yields US10YT=RR jumped as high as 2.36 percent
on Friday and were last up 4/32 in price to yield 2.3244 percent.
Copper prices
CMCU3, which have risen on Trump's promise to spend heavily on infrastructure,
were up 2.6 percent CMCU3 at $5,566 a tonne on the prospect of better demand in
top consumer China and on the dip in the greenback.
The pause in
the U.S. dollar rally helped gold XAU= bounce from a 5-1/2 month low. Spot gold
was up 0.4 percent at $1,213.27 an ounce.
Reuters
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