Fort Myers & Naples Insurance | Site For Lease

By Polya Lesova, MarketWatch

FRANKFURT (MarketWatch) — U.S. stock futures eked out marginal gains Thursday as investors waded into the market to hunt for bargains, but caution dominated sentiment ahead of data on weekly jobless claims.

Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 7 points to 10,054, and S&P 500 futures advanced 1.20 points to 1,055.80.

Nasdaq 100 futures added 1.75 points to 1,791.50.

Worries about the slowdown in the U.S. economic recovery have progressively increased in recent days, leading investors to sell equities and other assets perceived as risky. However, a late-session rally Wednesday helped the Dow
/quotes/comstock/10w!i:dji/delayed
(DJIA
10,060,
+19.61,
+0.20%)
break a four-session losing streak, with the index ending 0.2% higher.

Most Asian equity markets advanced Thursday, with Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average index rising 0.7%. In Europe, stocks also posted gains; the Stoxx Europe 600 index
/quotes/comstock/22c!sxxp
(ST:SXXP
248.52,
+0.98,
+0.40%)
added 0.6% in afternoon trading. Read the European Markets report.

“This is a natural reaction,” said Christian Tegllund Blaabjerg, chief equity strategist at Saxo Bank, referring to the latest gains. “The moves had been too strong to the downside, and consequently we are seeing a short rebound from here.”

“Bond markets are clearly starting to price in a recessionary-like scenario,” he said. “The only market that didn’t figure that in was equities, and that’s why we’ve seen such a move to the downside.”

Investors will pay close attention to U.S. weekly jobless claims, which will be released at 8:30 a.m. Eastern time. The data will come after a recent string of disappointing U.S. economic reports and before Friday’s second release of second-quarter gross-domestic-product data.

“The basic theme is that there is a larger tendency for market participants to believe that there is a strong likelihood for the U.S. to enter into a double-dip [recession],” Blaabjerg said. “If we are going to have a double dip — and I emphasize if, it’s going to be very short-lived.”

On the corporate front, specialty retailer J. Crew Group Inc.
/quotes/comstock/13*!jcg/quotes/nls/jcg
(JCG
33.65,
+0.85,
+2.59%)
is scheduled to report quarterly results.

Shares of pharmaceutical firm Warner Chilcott PLC
/quotes/comstock/15*!wcrx/quotes/nls/wcrx
(WCRX
28.60,
-0.84,
-2.85%)
rallied 19% in premarket trading, while shares of Guess Inc.
/quotes/comstock/13*!ges/quotes/nls/ges
(GES
38.23,
+0.78,
+2.08%)
tumbled 10.3% after the apparel firm reported results.

In Paris, shares of Credit Agricole
/quotes/comstock/24s!e:aca
(FR:ACA
10.15,
+0.25,
+2.53%)
rose 2.8% after the French banking group reported an 89% increase in second-quarter profit. Shares of cosmetics giant L’Oreal
/quotes/comstock/24s!e:or
(FR:OR
80.05,
+4.28,
+5.65%)
rallied 6% following strong first-half results.

In London, drinks producer Diageo PLC
/quotes/comstock/23s!a:dge
(UK:DGE
1,042,
-24.00,
-2.25%)
, whose brands include Smirnoff vodka and Johnnie Walker scotch, reported a 1.5% increase in fiscal-year profit.

Commodity prices moved higher, with oil futures rising 78 cents to $73.30 a barrel in electronic trading on Globex. Gold futures gained $1.20 to $1,242.50 an ounce, and copper futures advanced 4 cents to $3.25 a pound.

The U.S. dollar, meanwhile, was under selling pressure. The dollar index
/quotes/comstock/11j!i:dxy0
(DXY
82.99,
-0.27,
-0.32%)
, which tracks the performance of the greenback against a basket of other major currencies, fell 0.4% to 82.953.

The euro
/quotes/comstock/21o!x:seurusd
(EURUSD
1.2693,
+0.0033,
+0.2607%)
gained 0.2% to $1.2693.

In Washington, the Treasury is scheduled to sell $29 billion in 7-year notes.

Polya Lesova is MarketWatch’s London bureau chief.

Indications: Futures eke out marginal gains ahead of jobs data

By Polya Lesova, MarketWatch

FRANKFURT (MarketWatch) — U.S. stock futures straddled the flat line on Wednesday, as upcoming reports on new-home sales and durable goods kept investors on the sidelines on concern that the data will show more evidence of a slowdown in the economic recovery.

Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 1 point to 10,022.

S&P 500 futures traded little changed at 1,050 and Nasdaq 100 futures fell 1.25 points to 1,772.50.

The Dow
/quotes/comstock/10w!i:dji/delayed
(DJIA
10,040,
-133.96,
-1.32%)
fell 1.3% to end at 10,040.45 points, its lowest closing value since July 7. The index has dropped for four consecutive trading days.

The steep decline came after data showed that sales of existing U.S. homes tumbled more than 27% in July, the largest one-month drop on record.

Wall Street is bracing for more economic data: July durable-goods orders will be released at 8:30 a.m. Eastern time, to be followed by July new-home sales at 10 a.m.

Joshua Raymond, market strategist at City Index, said that “investors are not willing to take on too much risk with important economic data coming in thick and fast.”

Traders will watch closely the new-home sales data, which have “taken on added significance after yesterday’s very poor existing-home sales and the profit warning issued by Irish firm CRH,” he said in a note to clients.

On the corporate front, home builder Toll Brothers Inc.
/quotes/comstock/13*!tol/quotes/nls/tol
(TOL
16.19,
-0.01,
-0.06%)
swung to fiscal third-quarter profit from a year-earlier loss.

In Europe, equity markets swung between gains and losses, as investors weighed an unexpected rebound in German business sentiment against the downgrade of Ireland’s credit rating by Standard & Poor’s.

The Stoxx Europe 600 index
/quotes/comstock/22c!sxxp
(ST:SXXP
248.59,
-0.86,
-0.34%)
fell 0.3% in intraday trading.

Mining giant BHP Billiton
/quotes/comstock/13*!bhp/quotes/nls/bhp
(BHP
65.42,
-1.71,
-2.55%)

/quotes/comstock/23s!a:blt
(UK:BLT
1,800,
-3.00,
-0.17%)
said its fiscal-year attributable net profit more than doubled to $12.72 billion, buoyed by strong sales volumes of iron ore, metallurgical coal and petroleum. Shares of the Anglo-Australian firm were little changed in London trading.
Read more on BHP Billiton.

Shares of Heineken N.V.
/quotes/comstock/24s!e:heia
(NL:HEIA
34.97,
+0.21,
+0.59%)
gained 0.8% in Amsterdam after the beer giant reported a 42% rise in first-half profit.
See more on Heineken.

Shares of Tullow Oil
/quotes/comstock/23s!e:tlw
(UK:TLW
1,222,
-75.00,
-5.78%)
fell 5.5% in London after the company said it could face delays in its Uganda projects.

Asian shares posted broad-based losses, with Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average ending down 1.7% and China’s Shanghai Composite dropping 2%.

In the currency markets, the dollar index
/quotes/comstock/11j!i:dxy0
(DXY
83.27,
+0.12,
+0.15%)
, which tracks the performance of the greenback against a basket of other major currencies, gained 0.1% to 83.241.

The euro
/quotes/comstock/21o!x:seurusd
(EURUSD
1.2654,
+0.0026,
+0.2059%)
gained 0.3% to $1.2664, as Germany’s Ifo business-sentiment index posted an unexpected rebound in August, rising to its highest level since June 2007.

Oil futures were little changed at $71.63 a barrel in electronic trading on Globex ahead of government data on U.S. petroleum inventories.

Gold futures gained $4.60 to $1,238 an ounce.

Polya Lesova is MarketWatch’s London bureau chief.

Indications: Stock futures trade flat ahead of economic data

By MarketWatch

TOKYO (MarketWatch) — The dollar continued to edge up against the euro and sterling, while it ceded some ground to its Japanese rival Thursday, ahead of regular European Central Bank and Bank of England monetary policy meetings later in the session.

The ECB is seen as virtually certain to hold its key lending rate unchanged at a record low 1%, while the BOE is expected to keep its key rate on hold at a record low 0.5% and to leave its 200 billion pound ($318 billion) bond-purchase program on pause.
Read ECB, BOE preview.

The dollar index
/quotes/comstock/11j!i:dxy0
(DXY
81.01,
+0.12,
+0.15%)
, a measure of the greenback against a trade-weighted basket of major currencies, was buying 80.980, nearly flat with 80.981 in late North American trading Wednesday

The euro
/quotes/comstock/21o!x:seurusd
(EURUSD
1.3143,
-0.0009,
-0.0684%)
fell slightly to $1.3150 from $1.3157, and the British pound
/quotes/comstock/21o!x:sgbpusd
(GBPUSD
1.5829,
-0.0056,
-0.3525%)
changed hands at $1.5877, down from $1.5887.

The dollar
/quotes/comstock/21o!x:susdjpy
(USDYEN
86.2600,
-0.0500,
-0.0579%)
was buying ¥86.08, down from ¥86.24 late Wednesday but still well off recent lows below the ¥85.50-yen level.

The Australian dollar was buying 91.43 U.S. cents, down less than 0.1%.

On Wednesday, the dollar gained against the euro and turned up versus the Japanese yen after approaching a nine-month low, as better-than-anticipated reports on private payrolls and the services industry dampened worries about the U.S. economy’s growth.
See Wednesday’s Currencies report.

Currencies: Dollar treads water against rivals in Asian trade

By Deborah Levine and William L. Watts, MarketWatch

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — The U.S. dollar fell Tuesday to its lowest level since April, weighed down by a news report that Federal Reserve officials will consider a slight policy shift next week amid concerns over the strength of the U.S. economic recovery.

The dollar dropped against the Japanese yen to the lowest since 1995.

The Wall Street Journal said Fed policy makers will consider using cash from maturing mortgage-bond holdings to buy new mortgage or Treasury bonds instead of allowing its portfolio to shrink. The decision will likely depend largely on upcoming economic data, including the July jobs report on Friday, the newspaper said.

The dollar index
/quotes/comstock/11j!i:dxy0
(DXY
80.63,
-0.31,
-0.38%)
, a measure of the greenback against a basket of major currencies, fell to 80.630, from 80.870 in late North American trading Monday. The index dropped to 80.469 earlier, the weakest since April.

The euro
/quotes/comstock/21o!x:seurusd
(EURUSD
1.3221,
+0.0043,
+0.3263%)
rose to $1.3224, up from $1.3183 late Monday. It rose as high as $1.3261, the highest level since May.

The British pound
/quotes/comstock/21o!x:sgbpusd
(GBPUSD
1.5930,
+0.0040,
+0.2517%)
changed hands at $1.5931, up from $1.5910 Monday.

The dollar remained lower Tuesday after a report showed U.S. consumer spending and incomes came in weaker than forecast in June.
Read about U.S. spending, incomes.

Separate reports showed U.S. pending sales of homes fell 2.6% in June, and factory orders declined.

“What’s spurring the euro’s strength is the obvious combination that the local recovery is outpacing that in the U.S., while the current perception is that the Fed is on the cusp of announcing further bond purchases as a means to stimulate the economy,” said Andrew Wilkinson, a strategist at Interactive Brokers.

Still, losses by the dollar might be limited, as some see only a small chance that the Fed would take such a step because it may not help much. The Fed’s policy-setting committee meets Aug. 10.

“We suspect that with mortgage rates already near record lows, Treasury yields near record lows and the spread near record lows, the bar for renewing quantitative easing next week is higher than the media report suggests, even if there are contingency discussions,” said strategists at Brown Brothers Harriman.

Also, U.S. Treasury bonds rallied, pushing yields on 2-year notes to the lowest on record.
Read about Treasury bonds.

“Evidence of near-paralysis in the U.S. economy pushed U.S. yields consistently lower, and until yields bottom, the dollar will remain under pressure,” said Kathy Lien, director of currency research at Global Forex Trading.

Possibly limiting losses by the dollar, U.S. equity indexes declined, with the S&P 500 Index
/quotes/comstock/21z!i1:inx
(SPX
1,122,
-3.92,
-0.35%)
losing 0.4%. The dollar has tended to weaken when risk appetite rises and equities gain, and it often strengthens when risk appetite falls.
See Monday’s report on dollar, euro.s

“The likelihood of a Fed policy shift next week testifies to macro conditions worsening, not firming,” said Kenneth Broux, market economist at Lloyds TSB.

Currencies: Dollar hits 4-month low on reports of Fed shift

By Barbara Kollmeyer, MarketWatch

MADRID (MarketWatch) — A months-long battle between Spain’s Telefonica and Portugal Telecom came to an end on Wednesday, with the two companies announcing they reached a €7.5 billion ($10 billion) deal over Brazilian mobile operator Vivo Participacoes.

In a statement to the Spanish regulatory authorities, Telefonica
/quotes/comstock/13*!tef/quotes/nls/tef
(TEF
66.47,
+0.42,
+0.64%)

/quotes/comstock/06x!ctef
(ES:TEF
16.99,
+0.10,
+0.59%)
said an agreement had been reached with Portugal Telecom to finally settle the question of who will end up with Portugal Telecom’s
/quotes/comstock/13*!pt/quotes/nls/pt
(PT
11.20,
+0.46,
+4.28%)
stake in Vivo
/quotes/comstock/13*!viv/quotes/nls/viv
(VIV
27.31,
+1.21,
+4.62%)
.

The deal was believed to have been made possible owing to a separate deal announced by Portugal Telecom simultaneously, in which it will take a 22.4% stake in Brazil’s Tele Norte Leste Participacoes
/quotes/comstock/13*!tne/quotes/nls/tne
(TNE
16.11,
-1.16,
-6.72%)
, known as Oi Telemar, for 8.4 billion Brazilian reais ($4.75 billion). The deal is likely to placate the Portuguese government which has objected to the telecom selling its stake in Vivo, a prized asset.

Shares of Portugal Telecom, which were suspended much of the day in Lisbon, reopened with a 4.4% gain as trading resumed.

Shares in Telefonica, which will reported second-quarter results on Thursday, gained 0.7%.

Telefonica and Portugal Telecom jointly own Vivo via investment vehicle Brasilcel, which owns 60% of the company.

Telefonica will pay for Vivo in stages: €4.5 billion at the closing of the transaction (within 60 days at the latest), another €1 billion on Dec. 31 and the remaining €2 billion by October 31, 2011.

Telefonica will also offer a tender offer for the ordinary shares of Vivo that aren’t held by Brasilcel, which represent 3.8% of Vivo’s equity, roughly estimated to be worth €800 million.

Telefonica said in a statement that the acquisition gives it “undisputed leadership” of Brazil’s telecom market, which has been key for the group since it entered there in 1999. It plans to combine Vivo with its Telesp unit in Brazil, making it the largest integrated operator by customer numbers (69.2 million as of March 2010), revenue and profitability.

For the group, its global businesses are particularly important right now, as its home country struggles with a deep recession, fueled by a collapse in the housing and construction market. Shares of Telefonica have lost 21% this year, largely by association with its troubled home market.

Rod Sleath, Jersey-based fund manager for Collins Stewart, said Telefonica has a 5% position in their Continental Europe Focus Fund. He said they’ve had the acquisition of Vivo modeled in for some time, and it didn’t present any change to their upside potential of the group.

“Over the medium term, the company should experience structural growth from its Latin American assets, while the business in Spain should be “relatively” non-cyclical (note though that we do budget in a contraction of earnings for Spain in our 2010 expectations),” he said in emailed comments. “In the meantime the business pays a high dividend yield and it is worth noting that approximately 50% of operating profits are generated outside of Spain.”

An Iberian battle, a final happy ending

Telefonica’s pursuit of Portugal Telecom’s Vivo stake last spring ended up drawing in both Portugal’s government and the European Union. Telefonica has raised its offer three times in pursuit of the Vivo stake.

Two weeks ago, Portugal Telecom let Telefonica’s €7.15 billion ($9.3 billion) offer for its stake expire, and the Spanish group refused to extend the offer period. However, analysts were saying it was only a matter of time before Portugal Telecom gave in.

Portugal Telecom and the government have resisted the sale on grounds that the Brazilian mobile operations are a key part of growth of the country’s largest telecom company. Last month, the Portuguese government used its golden shares in Portugal Telecom to block the sale of Portugal Telecom’s stake to Spain’s Telefonica, which was followed by a ruling from the European Court of Justice that Portugal’s actions were unlawful, constituting a restriction on the free movement of capital.

A deal for Oi Telemar

As for Portugal Telecom, a deal for Oi Telemar is expected to ease ruffled feathers among investors and the government. Oi Group is the leading provider of telecommunications services in the Brazilian market and the largest fixed telecoms operator in South America in terms of active clients. In 2009, the group reported revenues of over $15 billion.

Under the terms of the deal, Portugal Telecom will have a “relevant role” in the management of Telemar Participacoes and its subsidiaries and will be able to “proportionally consolidate” its stake in Telemar.

Earlier, Deutsche Bank analysts said a deal each for Portugal Telecom and Telefonica was the best way to avoid “the potentially value-destructive legal path for both parties.”

And a higher price tag for Portugal Telecom’s Vivo stake is likely to help the group pay down domestic debt and return cash to shareholders, they said in a note to investors.

For stocks of both Portugal Telecom and Telefonica, the analysts said it’s a win-win situation, with shares of the former rallying on potential gains in its dividend — either due to dividend flow from Oi or cash left on its books after the Vivo sale.

“Either way, Portugal Telecom should rally hard to levels €9.5…Telefonica too should rally on relief,” Deutsche Bank said.

Barbara Kollmeyer is an editor for MarketWatch in Madrid.

Telefonica finally gets its stake in Vivo

By Deborah Levine and William L. Watts, MarketWatch

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — The dollar dropped about 1% against the Japanese yen and remained lower versus the euro on Friday, though the shared currency slipped after touching $1.30, as U.S. reports showed a drop in consumer sentiment and minimal inflation pressures.

The weak U.S. data meant that as equities fell — with the S&P 500 Index
/quotes/comstock/21z!i1:inx
(SPX
1,072,
-24.05,
-2.19%)
losing 1.9% — investors shifting out of riskier assets and into a safe haven were going into yen, pushing it to some of the best levels seen since November.

The dollar index
/quotes/comstock/11j!i:dxy0
(DXY
82.56,
+0.00,
+0.00%)
, which tracks the U.S. unit against a basket of six major currencies, slipped to 82.528 from 82.550 late Thursday. The index recovered after trading as low as 82.085.

Against Japan’s currency, the dollar
/quotes/comstock/21o!x:susdjpy
(CUR_USDYEN
86.3900,
-1.0300,
-1.1782%)
fell to ¥86.48 from ¥87.40 Thursday. The dollar fell as low as ¥86.24 intraday, not far from the low in November of ¥86.15. The all-time low in 1995 was around ¥81.
Read more on Japan, yen.

The euro
/quotes/comstock/21o!x:seurusd
(CUR_EURUSD
1.2921,
-0.0007,
-0.0541%)
rose just above $1.30 and recently traded at $1.2930 compared with $1.2906 in late North American trading on Thursday.

The British pound
/quotes/comstock/21o!x:sgbpusd
(CUR_GBPUSD
1.5287,
-0.0153,
-0.9909%)
extended losses to fall to $1.5314 from $1.5410 late Thursday. See MarketWatch’s currencies page.

The University of Michigan/Reuters index of consumer sentiment dropped in the early part of July by much more than analysts’ expected.
Read more about consumer sentiment.

The data supported U.S. bonds and pushed yields lower. That’s weighing on the dollar versus the yen, said Boris Schlossberg, director of currency research at GFT.
Read about Treasury bonds.

The dollar stayed down after a report showed U.S. consumer prices fell 0.1% in June, in line with analyst expectations. Core prices, excluding food and energy, rose slightly more than predicted but the year-over-year rate remains very low historically and points to a bigger risk of deflation — falling prices — than inflation.
Read about CPI report.

That removes one potential reason for the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates, which would support the dollar.

“The inflation data will raise more questions at the Fed about too-rapid disinflation [or deflation] risks,” economists at RDQ Economics wrote in emailed comments.

The policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee maintains an informal target of 1.5% to 2% for consumer inflation, they noted.

“Low actual inflation rates are one of the three factors the FOMC cites as warranting exceptionally low rates for an extended period, and there is nothing here to suggest a language change anytime soon,” they said.

The dollar also stayed down after the Treasury Department said international-capital inflows to U.S. debt in May slowed to $33 billion, primarily going into mortgage-agency bonds.

Net foreign purchases of U.S. long-term securities increased in May at the slowest pace since January, according to the Treasury International Capital, or TIC, report. Total holdings of equities, notes and bonds increased a net $35.4 billion in May, down from $81.5 billion in April. See more on TIC data.

Euro support

At the same time, the euro is benefiting from a number of factors, said Marco Annunziata, chief economist at UniCredit Group. The single currency has gained 2.3% this week against the dollar, and recovered about 5.8% so far this month.

The bounce marks a rebound from below $1.19 last month, which was a four-year low.

These include a “paradoxical” situation, Annunziata said. Despite the fact that the recovery in the U.S. is clearly more robust than in the euro zone, the Fed “sounds more dovish and seems to be toying with the idea of a renewed wave of quantitative easing, whereas the [European Central Bank] sounds cautiously more optimistic and short-term market rates have tentatively begun to edge up,” he said.

Earlier this week, minutes from the Fed’s June policy meeting indicated officials agreed to consider further policy measures to stimulate growth if needed.
Read about Fed minutes, dollar.

Investors also appear to be gaining confidence in the policy measures that individual euro-zone governments have undertaken to address the crisis and rein in deficits, while Asian investors appear more comfortable taking on sovereign-credit risk within the euro zone, he said.

The European banks stress tests due for publication next week, however, remain the “make-or-break challenge” for the euro, Annunziata said.

From last week, the dollar has lost 2.4% against the yen and 1.5% versus the British pound.

The dollar index is down 1.7% this week.

Deborah Levine is a MarketWatch reporter, based in New York.
William L. Watts is a reporter for MarketWatch in London.

Currencies: Dollar drops versus yen as stocks fall after data

By Claudia Assis and Kate Gibson, MarketWatch

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Crude-oil futures pared their losses on Wednesday after a government report showed a larger-than-expected decline in inventories.

Crude oil for August delivery declined 19 cents, or 0.2%, to $76.93 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The Energy Department’s Energy Information Administration on Wednesday reported a decline of 5.1 million barrels in crude inventories in the week ended July 9.

Analysts polled by Platts expected a drop of 2.6 million barrels.

The EIA also reported an increase of 1.6 million barrels for gasoline stocks and a rise of 2.9 million barrels for stocks of distillates, which include heating oil and diesel.

The analysts surveyed by Platts had projected increases of 950,000 barrels in gasoline supplies and 800,000 barrels in distillate supplies.

Refineries operated at 90.5% of their operable capacity last week, the EIA said. Analysts had forecast a drop by 0.4 of a percentage point to 89.4%.

On Tuesday, crude for August delivery rallied $2.20, or 2.9%, to $77.15 a barrel, closing above the $77-a-barrel level for the first time since June 28.

But the weaker retail sales figures took the bullish edge off the market, said Tim Evans, an analyst with Citigroup’s Citi Futures Perspective unit, in a note to clients. Also weighing on the market are prospects of an increase in supplies.

The Commerce Department reported Wednesday that sales at U.S. retailers dropped 0.5% in June, joining other evidence in recent weeks that has pointed to the economic recovery slowing down.

The American Petroleum Institute, a Washington-based trade group, on Tuesday reported that oil inventories had climbed 1.74 million barrels last week.

The front-month contract has traded between $70 and $80 a barrel since late May amid mixed economic reports and relatively few changes in overall supply and demand.

The dollar offered some support to crude and other commodities, with the dollar index
/quotes/comstock/11j!i:dxy0
(DXY
83.29,
-0.36,
-0.43%)
, which compares the U.S. unit to a basket of six currencies, off 0.3% at 83.32.

A weaker dollar usually bolsters commodities as it makes them less expensive to holders of other currencies.

U.S.-listed shares of BP PLC
/quotes/comstock/13*!bp/quotes/nls/bp
(BP
36.62,
-0.26,
-0.70%)
fell 1.9% after the oil giant announced further delays in an effort to stem the flow of crude in the Gulf.
Read more about BP’s efforts.

Claudia Assis is a San Francisco-based reporter for MarketWatch.
Kate Gibson is a reporter for MarketWatch, based in New York.

Futures Movers: Oil trims losses after supply report

By MarketWatch

TOKYO (MarketWatch) — The Australian dollar rose Friday after the Australian government announced a deal with the mining industry on a controversial resource-tax plan.

The country’s new prime minister, Julia Gillard, announced the deal in Canberra before the stock-market open, saying a “basic structure” for taxing natural-resource profits was now in place.
See full story on Australian resource tax.

The Aussie
/quotes/comstock/21o!x:saudusd
(CUR_AUDUSD
0.8456,
-0.0006,
-0.0709%)
was buying 84.67 U.S. cents, up 0.1%, after rising as high as 85.095 earlier.

The Australian currency “jumped 80 pips to 0.8510, almost 2 big figures up from where it was 30 hours prior,” said Sue Trinh, senior currency strategist at Royal Bank of Canada.

Meanwhile, China’s yuan rose against the U.S. dollar to another record high, after the People’s Bank of China set its daily parity rate sharply higher. The unit is allowed to trade within a bank of 0.5% on either side of the official rate.

China set the rate at 6.7720, the highest level since it revalued the yuan and abandoned its dollar peg in 2005. The yuan climbed as high as 6.7700 against the dollar.

The dollar index
/quotes/comstock/11j!i:dxy0
(DXY
84.72,
+0.00,
+0.00%)
, a measure of the greenback against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, fell to 84.521 from 84.680 in late North American trading on Thursday.

Against the yen, the dollar
/quotes/comstock/21o!x:susdjpy
(CUR_USDYEN
87.9500,
+0.2300,
+0.2622%)
bought ¥87.95, up from ¥87.42.

The euro
/quotes/comstock/21o!x:seurusd
(CUR_EURUSD
1.2493,
-0.0022,
-0.1758%)
rose to $1.2525, from $1.2486, and the British pound
/quotes/comstock/21o!x:sgbpusd
(CUR_GBPUSD
1.5154,
-0.0011,
-0.0725%)
rose to $1.5199, from $1.5155 late Thursday.

On Thursday, the dollar dropped against the euro and Japan’s yen on Thursday after data showed U.S. jobless claims rose, pending home sales plunged and manufacturing activity slowed, all signaling weakness in the country’s economic outlook.
See Thursday’s Currencies report.

Currencies: Aussie dollar rises on tax news; China yuan soars

By Jim Jelter, MarketWatch

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Oil and gas stocks fell Monday as concerns that Tropical Storm Alex might plow into the Gulf of Mexico eased, knocking the wind out of the storm’s earlier threat to offshore production.

In early trade, the NYSE Arca Oil Index
/quotes/comstock/10t!xoi.x
(XOI
920.70,
-1.60,
-0.17%)
was off 0.3% at 919.4 points, with only three of the index’s 13 components managing to hang on to gains.

BP PLC
/quotes/comstock/13*!bp/quotes/nls/bp
(BP
27.65,
+0.63,
+2.33%)
was one of those gainers, leading the index with a 1.9% advance to $27.53 a share, as meteorologists predicted Alex, now churning off Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, would likely steer clear of BP’s efforts to corral its wild well 40 miles off Louisiana.

BP raised its cost of the cleanup Monday to $2.65 billion.
Read more about the price of BP’s cleanup.

Alex remains a potentially dangerous storm and could reach hurricane force within the next 24 hours, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami. But with the storm veering to the west, it appears unlikely to disrupt oil and gas output from the main cluster of rigs off Louisiana.

Given the diminishing threat from Alex, oil prices fell back below $78 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. At last glance, the August futures contract was down 96 cents to $77.90 a barrel.
Read more about oil prices.

The NYSE Arca Natural Gas Index
/quotes/comstock/10t!xng.x
(XNG
505.49,
-6.39,
-1.25%)
fell 1.2% to 505.9 points, with all components in the red.

The Philadelphia Oil Service Sector Index
/quotes/comstock/10y!i:osx
(OSX
172.26,
-0.95,
-0.55%)
slipped 0.5% to 172.4 points, with 13 of its 15 components trading lower.

Noble Corp.
/quotes/comstock/13*!ne/quotes/nls/ne
(NE
30.51,
+1.23,
+4.20%)
was a notable exception, up 5.56% to $30.88 a share on word that it has bought privately held drilling company FDR Holdings for $2.16 billion in cash, a move that adds six floating drill rigs to Noble’s fleet and about $2 billion worth of backlogged contracts. The move aims to curb Noble’s exposure to slower drilling activities in the Gulf as a result of the BP spill.

Jim Jelter is Industrials Editor for MarketWatch in San Francisco.

Energy Stocks: Energy stocks slide as Gulf storm threat eases

By Jim Jelter, MarketWatch

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Oil and gas stocks fell Monday as concerns that Tropical Storm Alex might plow into the Gulf of Mexico eased, knocking the wind out of the storm’s earlier threat to offshore production.

In early trade, the NYSE Arca Oil Index
/quotes/comstock/10t!xoi.x
(XOI
920.70,
-1.60,
-0.17%)
was off 0.3% at 919.4 points, with only three of the index’s 13 components managing to hang on to gains.

BP PLC
/quotes/comstock/13*!bp/quotes/nls/bp
(BP
27.65,
+0.63,
+2.33%)
was one of those gainers, leading the index with a 1.9% advance to $27.53 a share, as meteorologists predicted Alex, now churning off Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, would likely steer clear of BP’s efforts to corral its wild well 40 miles off Louisiana.

BP raised its cost of the cleanup Monday to $2.65 billion.
Read more about the price of BP’s cleanup.

Alex remains a potentially dangerous storm and could reach hurricane force within the next 24 hours, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami. But with the storm veering to the west, it appears unlikely to disrupt oil and gas output from the main cluster of rigs off Louisiana.

Given the diminishing threat from Alex, oil prices fell back below $78 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. At last glance, the August futures contract was down 96 cents to $77.90 a barrel.
Read more about oil prices.

The NYSE Arca Natural Gas Index
/quotes/comstock/10t!xng.x
(XNG
505.49,
-6.39,
-1.25%)
fell 1.2% to 505.9 points, with all components in the red.

The Philadelphia Oil Service Sector Index
/quotes/comstock/10y!i:osx
(OSX
172.26,
-0.95,
-0.55%)
slipped 0.5% to 172.4 points, with 13 of its 15 components trading lower.

Noble Corp.
/quotes/comstock/13*!ne/quotes/nls/ne
(NE
30.51,
+1.23,
+4.20%)
was a notable exception, up 5.56% to $30.88 a share on word that it has bought privately held drilling company FDR Holdings for $2.16 billion in cash, a move that adds six floating drill rigs to Noble’s fleet and about $2 billion worth of backlogged contracts. The move aims to curb Noble’s exposure to slower drilling activities in the Gulf as a result of the BP spill.

Jim Jelter is Industrials Editor for MarketWatch in San Francisco.

Energy Stocks: Energy stocks slide as Gulf storm threat eases