28 Jul 2010

US markets mixed, Europe up

8:45 am on 28 July 2010

There were mixed results on Wall Street on Tuesday, as a sharp drop in July consumer confidence curbed enthusiasm stirred by more robust company earnings.

The Dow Jones Index closed 12 points higher at 10,538 and the Nasdaq Composite fell 8 points to 2288.

Earlier in Europe, the FTSE 100 in London closed up 0.3% at 5366 - a 10-week closing high boosted by strong results from Swiss lender UBS.

The DAX index in Frankfurt rose 0.2% and the CAC-40 index in Paris rose 0.8%.

The Nikkei index in Tokyo lost 6 points to close at 9,496. However, the Hang Seng in Hong Kong was up 133 on 20,973.

The Australian 200 Index rose 11 points to close at 4497.

The NZX 50 fell 13 points to close at 3008 on turnover of $39 million.

At 8.20am on Wednesday, the New Zealand dollar was trading at 73.26 US cents, 81.25 Australian cents, 47.04 pence, 64.46 yen and 0.5642 euro. The Trade Weighted Index was at 68.42.

Brent crude oil was trading at $US77.17 per barrel and gold was trading at $US1160.65 per ounce.