U.S. stocks rebound from rout, dollar edges up
By Richard Leong NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street stock prices rose on Tuesday, helping world shares steady after they hit a near four-month low, while the yen and U.S. and German government debt prices fell as jitters over emerging markets retreated. Renewed bids for U.S. equities bolstered the dollar and oil and pared the safe-haven demand for gold. Monday's sharp decline on weaker-than-expected U.S. data, concerns over growth in China and the outlook for some emerging economies opened the door for traders looking for bargains, analysts said. "Yesterday was really the first concerted selloff, indiscriminate as to individual stocks," said Rick Meckler, president of investment firm LibertyView Capital Management in Jersey City, New Jersey. "With that type of selling going on, this morning you're seeing some bargain-hunters looking for oversold opportunities." After the previous session's pounding, the Dow Jones industrial average ended up 72.44 points, or 0.47 percent, at 15,445.24. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index closed up 13.31 points, or 0.76 percent, at 1,755.20. The Nasdaq Composite Index finished up 34.56 points, or 0.86 percent, at 4,031.52. The bounce in U.S. equities pulled MSCI's world index from its lowest level since October, set earlier as Japan's Nikkei recorded a 4 percent drop. The measure of shares in 45 countries was last down 0.18 percent at 384.97. Europe's top shares finished 0.17 percent lower at 1,270.74 after falling as much as 0.68 percent. U.S. factory orders released shortly after the Wall Street open bolstered the fragile mood. Nevertheless, lingering anxiety about troubles in emerging markets and uneasiness over the upcoming U.S. jobs report on Friday kept traders on edge. "This emerging (market) crisis does matter if it worsens because it will have an impact on global growth," said Daniel McCormack, a strategist at Macquarie in London. Emerging market stocks came back from a 1.4 percent drop to end 0.8 percent lower, while hard-hit currencies including Turkey's lira, Russia's rouble, Hungary's forint and the South African rand all moved away from their recent lows. As the severity in the selloff in emerging markets abated, the dollar improved slightly against major currencies, bouncing back from a more than two-month low of 100.74 yen earlier. The dollar index was up 0.14 percent at 81.12, retracing part of the 0.37 percent drop on Monday. The greenback rose 0.64 percent versus the yen at 101.61 yen. Reduced safe-haven bids bogged down U.S. Treasuries and German Bunds. Benchmark 10-year U.S. government debt fell 12/32 in price to yield 2.626 percent after its yield slipped to a three-month low late on Monday. German Bund futures lost 12 basis points to 143.90. Gold gave back some of Monday's safe-haven gains and last traded down 0.2 percent at $1,254.91 an ounce. In other commodities, oil prices in London fell on worries about weakening demand in the wake of recent disappointing U.S. and Chinese economic data. Brent crude settled 26 cents, or 0.25 percent, lower at $105.78 a barrel. U.S. oil futures, on the other hand, rose on bets on a reduced stockpile at a key delivery point due to the start-up of a major pipeline. The March NYMEX contract settled up 76 cents or 0.79 percent at $97.19 a barrel. TEN-PERCENT CORRECTION? The stock market gyrations caused the VIX, seen as the market's fear index, to jump to its highest since June on Monday before easing 11.9 percent to 18.90 on Tuesday. "Sentiment has soured so it's reasonable to see some more downward move in the near term," said Terry Sandven, chief equity strategist with U.S. Bank Wealth Management in Minneapolis. The Nikkei has shed 14 percent since the start of the year following last year's 50 percent boom. By comparison, the U.S. benchmark S&P 500 has dropped 5.0 percent and the FTSEurofirst 300 has fallen 3.5 percent. "With the main European indexes down around 7 percent (since peaks), chatter on trading desk is about whether we are in for a '10 percent' correction," Jonathan Sudaria, a dealer at Capital Spreads in London, said in emailed comments. More evidence of a slowing global economy will likely have to materialize for stocks to fall much further, U.S. Bank's Sandven said. "We are not in a bear market yet. We are in still an uptrend." (Additional reporting by Rodrigo Campos in New York and; Lisa Twaronite in Tokyo; Editing by Catherine Evans and Dan Grebler)
