Immediate-delivery gold rose for the first time in five days

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index moncler jackets gained 0.8 percent as of 2:05 p.m. in Tokyo, paring a 2.4 percent drop for the week. India’s rupee jumped 2.7 percent after the central bank introduced measures to curb currency speculation. Standard & Poor’s 500 Index futures rose 0.5 percent and the Australian dollar advanced against most of its 16 major counterparts. Gold, copper and aluminum increased at least 1.1 percent.
U.S. initial jobless claims unexpectedly dropped to a three-year low and Federal Reserve gauges of manufacturing in the New York and Philadelphia regions topped estimates. Singapore’s exports exceeded economists’ projections, while Fitch Ratings boosted Indonesia’s sovereign debt ratings to investment grade. European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said yesterday there’s no “external savior” for indebted countries that don’t implement structural reforms and the central bank’s buying government bonds isn’t limitless.
“The U.S. economy is ending the year in a bit better shape than people had anticipated, and that is good, but Europe is obviously not,” saidStephen Halmarick, Sydney-based head of investment markets research at Colonial First State Global Asset Management, which oversees about $150 billion. “The European economy is heading toward recession next year, and I think it’s going to continue to weigh on markets.”
Euro Gains
The euro climbed 0.1 percent to $1.3029, trimming the biggest weekly decline in three months. Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti faces a confidence vote in Parliament today to speed passage of a 30 billion-euro ($39 billion) emergency budget plan aimed at spurring growth.
S&P 500 futures rose to 1,218, signaling that the U.S. equity benchmark may extend yesterday’s 0.3 percent advance, when two stocks rose for each that fell. The S&P 500 has lost 3.3 percent in 2011, the second-best performance among 24 developed markets after New Zealand.
The number of applications for unemployment payments in the U.S. dropped by 19,000 to 366,000 in the week ended Dec. 10, a lower total than was forecast by any of 47 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News, according to government figures released yesterday.
The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield was unchanged at 1.91 percent, five basis points from a two-month low. U.S. consumer prices probably rose 0.1 percent in November after falling the previous month, according to a survey of economists before the Labor Department report today.
Nikkei, S&P/ASX
About three stocks rose for every two that fell in the MSCI Asia Pacific Index, which has lost 18 percent this year. The Nikkei 225 Stock Average and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index climbed 0.5 percent.
The Shanghai Composite Index was little changed, poised for its biggest weekly loss since July 2010. New China Life Insurance Co., the nation’s third-largest life insurer,new jackets for women surged 11 percent on its first trading day in Shanghai.
The Chinese yuan gained as much as 0.7 percent to 6.3294 per dollar, the strongest level since China unified official and market exchange rates at the end of 1993, amid signs credit curbs are easing. Banks in Shenzhen are joining peers in Beijing and Shanghai in cutting mortgage rates for first-time homebuyers, the Securities Times reported.
Rupee Jumps
The Indian rupee rose to 52.2612 per dollar after falling to an all-time low of 54.3050 yesterday. Forward contracts once canceled cannot be bought again, the Reserve Bank of India said in a statement on its website yesterday. The new rule applies to domestic as well as foreign investors and takes effect immediately.
“This is a good step to curtail the rupee’s weakness,” said Paresh Nayar, Mumbai-based head of money-market and currency trading at FirstRand Ltd. (FSR) “The move will curb building of speculation in the market. There is a possibility the currency will move toward 52 per dollar during the day.”
The BSE India Sensitive Index, or Sensex, climbed 1.1 percent. India’s central bank will probably leave interest rates unchanged for the first time since 2010, ending a streak of seven increases. All 13 economists in a Bloomberg survey predict that the Reserve Bank of India will hold the repurchase rate at a three-year high of 8.5 percent today.
Gold, Copper
Immediate-delivery gold rose for the first time in five days, gaining 1.1 percent to $1,588.50 an ounce. Copper for three-month delivery climbed 1.6 percent to $7,323 a metric ton on the London Metal Exchange. Aluminum increased 1.7 percent to $2,008 a ton. Oil rose 0.4 percent to $94.25 a barrel, poised for a 5.2 percent weekly retreat, the most since September cheap moncler jackets.