EQUITY MARKETS AROUND the world have moved up again of late in response to some positive economic news, strong corporate earnings reports and the Reserve Bank of Australia’s decision to hike interest rates. For the week ended Oct 9, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 4% to 9,865, the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index advanced 4.5% to 1,071 and the Nasdaq Composite climbed 4.4% to 2,139.
The key US economic news for that week featured September’s Institute for Supply Management’s Non-Manufacturing survey, which pointed to an expansion for the first time since the credit crisis began. On the corporate earnings front, preliminary reports suggest that 3Q earnings may be stronger than expected. From an interest rate perspective, the big news of late was the 25-basis-point rate hike that took place in Australia. That was the first such move among G-20 countries in the current cycle.
