Wall St. climbs in wake of Swiss move as energy stocks gain
NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks rose on Friday as energy stocks climbed and market participants continued to assess the ramifications for U.S. and other markets of Switzerland's move to scrap its currency cap.
Investors attempted to interpret the impact of the move by the Swiss National Bank. The decision could be seen as foreshadowing a large stimulus move by the European Central Bank next week that would further weaken the euro, or as a safeguard against a possible Greek exit from the euro zone that could potentially destabilize the bloc.
"It just shows structurally, the European Union has issues and there is a question of whether it can be saved because all these countries really act on their own, so there isn?t a lot of union going on," said Tim Ghriskey, chief investment officer of Solaris Group in Bedford Hills, New York.
Shares of retail foreign exchange broker FXCM Inc, were halted after it said it may be in breach of regulatory capital requirements following client losses related to the Swiss move to ditch the cap on the Swiss franc's value. Two people familiar with the matter said Investment bank Jefferies has expressed interest in a rescue deal with FXCM.
Interactive Brokers, whose clients also are exposed to currency trades, fell 5.1 percent. The company said several customers suffered losses in excess of their deposit due to the sudden move in the Swiss franc.
Gain Capital, down 2 percent, said its financial position remained sound after the franc move.
Energy stocks rose 2.3 percent to lead the advance as crude prices bounced. Brent rose more than 1.8 percent to $49.14 a barrel after the International Energy Agency forecast the market downtrend would end. Still, analysts said strong gains were unlikely in the near term as global output outweighs demand. [O/R]
"Crude oil is up, it?s been up for a couple of days, any time that happens there is a belief we have put in a bottom," said Ghriskey.
U.S. consumer prices data also helped boost equities, showing their biggest decline in six years as underlying inflation pressures were benign, which could give the Federal Reserve ammunition to delay its first interest rate increase.
Separately, U.S. manufacturing output rose modestly in December, but slowed from strong gains in the prior month while U.S. consumer sentiment rose in January to its highest in 11 years.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 47.52 points, or 0.27 percent, to 17,368.23, the S&P 500 gained 10.06 points, or 0.5 percent, to 2,002.73 and the Nasdaq Composite added 25.47 points, or 0.56 percent, to 4,596.29.
Wall Street was still on track to notch its third straight weekly decline. The benchmark S&P has fallen for five straight sessions and ten of the past 12 days. The index is down 4.1 percent from its last record high Dec. 29.
Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by 2,069 to 872, for a 2.37-to-1 ratio on the upside; on the Nasdaq, 1,736 issues rose and 823 fell for a 2.11-to-1 ratio favoring advancers.
The benchmark S&P 500 index was posting 16 new 52-week highs and 14 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite was recording 18 new highs and 76 new lows.
(Editing by Bernadette Baum)