GLOBAL MARKETS: European Stocks To Rise; Buoyed By Wall St

GLOBAL MARKETS: European Stocks To Rise; Buoyed By Wall St
By Andrea Tryphonides
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
LONDON (Dow Jones)--European stocks are expected to open a little higher Thursday, with the late rally on Wall Street and a turnaround in Asia likely to give a boost to equity markets. Matt Buckland, a dealer at CMC Markets said: "A late rally on Wall Street should also help consolidate positive sentiment across the board." Buckland called London's FTSE 100 up 24 points, or 0.6%, at 3924.0, Frankfurt's DAX up 10.7 points or, 0.3%, at 4234.0 and Paris's CAC-40 9.5 points, or 0.3%, higher at 2903.0. However, there were indications from other traders that the recent rallies may have run their course. Ben Potter, research analyst at IG Markets, said: "There's no doubting this global rally is getting long in the tooth. The question is not how high we rally, but how far we fall when the bears regain control. This will help determine if we are near a bottom." Asian share markets were mostly a little higher, helped by the gains on Wall Street and a surge in mainland China financial stocks, which sent the Hang Seng Index up 3.1%. Japan's Nikkei 225 was up 1.8%, with Australia's S&P/ASX 200 up 1.0%, South Korea's Kospi Composite up 1.2% and Taiwan shares 0.8% higher. But overall activity in Asia was low, with some fatigue setting in after recent sharp gains for many bourses. "In the short term I can understand this bullishness, but we haven't seen the full impact of the recession. I know markets look through all that, but it's going to cause further pain," said ABN Amro director David Iron. U.S. stocks closed higher Wednesday, with a late surge for financial stocks such as JPMorgan Chase and home builders such as Toll Brothers, amid more signs of stabilization in the housing market. Stocks had dipped into negative territory mid-session after weak demand at a U.S. Treasury five-year note auction and a difficult sale of U.K. debt suggested that investors are balking at governments' spending. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 89.8 points at 7749.8, recouping the bulk of Tuesday's losses, though it was up by more than 200 points before the Treasury auction. The broad Standard & Poor's 500 index added 7.6 points to 813.9 and the Nasdaq Composite rose 12.4 to 1529.0. The decline in U.S. Treasurys weighed on Japanese government bonds and is expected to continue to weigh on the European bond market Thursday. In the foreign exchanges, the dollar and euro were up a little against the Japanese yen, after an initial drop in the dollar in New York following comments by U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. Geithner initially appeared open to the Chinese proposal that an international currency supplant the U.S. dollar as the key global reserve currency, but later added "the dollar remains the world's dominant reserve currency." The dollar was trading at Y98.08 at 0725 GMT, up from Y97.54 late in New York, and the euro was quoted at Y133.26, up from Y132.51. The euro was at $1.3570, down from $1.3583. Elsewhere, spot gold was down 93 cents from New York at $933.10 per troy ounce, with Barclays Capital forecasting a $916-$967 range for the metal. May Nymex crude was up 48 cents at $53.25 per barrel, having fallen $1.21 in New York. The economic calendar is rather quiet Thursday. H&M and Kingfisher's results will be in focus, along with a trading statement from Man Group. -By Andrea Tryphonides, Dow Jones Newswires; +44-20-7842-9281; andrea.tryphonides@dowjones.com Click here to go to Dow Jones NewsPlus, a web front page of today's most important business and market news, analysis and commentary: http://www.djnewsplus.com/access/al?rnd=Ia%2B9%2FwQde7iSgF%2FbgehNXw%3D%3D. You can use this link on the day this article is published and the following day. (END) Dow Jones NewswiresMarch 26, 2009 03:30 ET (07:30 GMT)