By Nikolaj Gammeltoft and Lynn Thomasson - Nov 28, 2011 11:59 AM GMT+0700
U.S. stock futures rose, signaling the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index will end a seven-day losing streak, after Thanksgiving retail sales climbed to a record and speculation grew that European leaders will boost efforts to solve the sovereign-debt crisis.
S&P 500 futures expiring in December advanced 1.8 percent to 1,174.40 as of 1:51 p.m. Tokyo time. The index has fallen 7.9 percent since Nov. 15, including the worst Thanksgiving-week decline since 1932. Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 1.4 percent to 11,347.
“It would be a relief for money managers if we can just move Europe from a negative to a neutral impact on the market,” Dan Veru, chief investment officer at Fort Lee, New Jersey-based Palisade Capital Management LLC, which manages $3.4 billion, said in a telephone interview. “There’s an underpinning of growth in the U.S. and it’s picking up steam.”
U.S. retail sales during the Thanksgiving weekend increased 16 percent to $52.4 billion, according to the National Retail Federation, citing a survey conducted by BIGresearch. The average shopper spent $398.62, up from $365.34 a year earlier.
German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble called for fast- track treaty changes to tighten budget discipline to calm markets in an interview with ARD television in Berlin yesterday. Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti is set to propose more austerity measures this week to balance the country’s budget by 2013, the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday.
The increased severity of Europe’s debt crisis is threatening the credit standing of countries in the region, said Moody’s Investors Service in a report today. More than $1.2 trillion has been erased from U.S. stocks since Nov. 15 as concern grows that Europe’s debt crisis will spread and American policy makers failed to reach agreement on reducing the federal budget.
To contact the reporters on this story: Nikolaj Gammeltoft in New York at ngammeltoft@bloomberg.net; Lynn Thomasson in Hong Kong at lthomasson@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Nick Baker at nbaker7@bloomberg.net
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