US stocks rallied on Friday, with investors starting off a new year on the right foot, after an abysmal 2008, and the Dow closing above 9,000 for the first time since November. The DJIA rose 258 points to close at 9034.69, the Nasdaq added 55.18 points to close at 1632.21 and the S&P500 added 28.55 points to close at 931.80.
In economic news, the manufacturing sector continues to weaken, according to latest reports. The Institute for Supply Management's manufacturing index fell to a 28 year low in December, declining more than what economists had been expecting. This week brings a number of economic reports covering retail sales, auto sales, factory orders and construction spending ahead of the big December employment report due Friday.
In company news, Time Warner Cable and Viacom have reached a new programming deal that will keep 19 Viacom cable channels on TWC's network. TWC is a unit of Time Warner, which also owns CNNMoney.com.
In other news, Bank of America has completed its acquisition of Merrill Lynch. Wells Fargo has completed its purchase of Wachovia.
General Motors rallied on news that the government paid the first $4bn in emergency loans to the troubled automaker. Additionally, on Friday, it was reported that lender GMAC LLC had changed its pact with the company to give it more freedom in offering loans.
Treasury prices tumbled, raising the yields on the 10 year note to 2.37 percent from 2.24 percent. Lending rates were mixed. The 3 month Libor rate slipped to a 4 1/2 year low of 1.41 percent from 1.42 percent.
The dollar gained versus the euro and the yen.
US light crude for February delivery rose $1.47 to $46.15 a barrel on NYMEX.
COMEX gold for February delivery fell $4.80 to settle at $880 an ounce.
Gasoline prices rose 0.8 cents to a national average of $1.626 a gallon.
The Nikkei began 2009 on a strong note today, climbing 2.1 percent and hitting nearly two month closing high on hopes this year will be better than last, the worst in the Nikkei's history. Honda Motor and other exporters climbed on a weaker yen. Resource linked firms such as trading houses surged as oil jumped more than 3 percent, after an Iranian military commander reportedly called on Islamic countries to cut oil exports to supporters of Israel over Israel's ground offensive in the Gaza Strip to stop Hamas rocket attacks. The Nikkei average rose 183.56 points to close at 9043.12, ending above 9000 for the first time in two months.
In one sign that things remain uncertain, the Nikkei business daily said drugmaker Daiichi Sankyo is likely to book more than Y300bn in losses for the April-December period stemming from the declining stock price of its Indian subsidiary, Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd. But despite the gloom, energy linked stocks surged in the wake of the Middle East troubles and concerns over a deepening row between Russia and Ukraine over gas prices. Oil and gas field developer Inpex climbed 3.3 percent to Y721,000, while Mitsubishi Corp surged 9.2 percent to Y1,352. Mitsui and Co jumped 8.6 percent to Y978.
Honda climbed 2.7 percent to Y1,958 and Toyota Motor gained 3.6 percent to Y3,010, shrugging off a weekend report in Japan's Sankei newspaper that Toyota will freeze plans to build new factories in Thailand and Russia due to sluggish global demand.
Suzuki Motor Corp rose 3.7 percent to Y1,273 despite a report by the Nikkei business daily that it will shelve a plan to launch large sized cars in 2010 and delay the start of overseas factories amid a sharp deterioration in the global auto market.
UK stocks rose nearly 3 percent on Friday, the first trading day of 2009 and extended its winning run to four sessions on the back of commodities stocks. Defensive drugmakers fell after outperforming last year. The FTSE100 closed 127.62 points higher at 4561.79. Trading was light with just over 400m shares changing hands compared with last weeks daily average of 511m.
Oil producers contributed the most points to the FTSE as crude prices rose above $46 a barrel. BP, Royal Dutch Shell, BG Group and Tullow Oil were up between 3.9 and 5.1 percent.
Miners were also popular, tracking gains in base metals prices. Xstrata jumped nearly 17 percent, Rio Tinto soared 13.7 percent, Anglo American added 10.5 percent, Kazakhmys surged 10.4 percent and Vedanta Resources climber 13.4 percent.
Financials kicked off the year on a bright note. HSBC, RBS, HBOS and Lloyds TSB added 2.4-6.3 percent. However, data still pointed to grim economic times in 2009. A survey showed the credit squeeze for British families and businesses looks set to intensify despite unprecedented measures to recapitalise the banking system and get lending flowing again.
Retailers were strong after John Lewis said sales surged at both its department stores and upmarket grocery chain in the days before and after Christmas. Marks and Spencer added 2.9 percent, Next rose 2.6 percent, Kingfisher added 2.4 percent and Sainsbury rose 2.4 percent.Economics
US Construction spending (Nov) 15.00 gmt
Construction spending is expected to fall 1.3 percent in November. New housing starts slowed sharply to 625,000 and a 2 percent drop in private residential construction is expected. Non-residential construction could decline for the second month in a row.
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