European markets opened in positive territory this morning with the FTSE Eurofirst 300 and the FTSE All-Share both up 0.8%. This follows strong overnight results from IBM and Google.
J Sainsbury's share price was down after a 10% jump yesterday on takeover speculation. US equities finished higher on Thursday, with the Dow Jones up 0.5% after breaking to a new high for 2009. The S&P 500 finished up 0.4%. Oil rose above US$77, which led energy shares higher, but the banking sector fell back, despite the Q3 results from Citigroup and Goldman Sachs being ahead of forecasts. Sterling racked up its biggest one-day gain in almost a year yesterday on speculation that the Bank of England may suspend quantitative easing (QE) at £175 billion. The longer-term trend has been o...
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