Some encouraging housing and retail data boosted investor
confidence in the United States overnight, with the market posting solid gains for the second session in a row. These data, coupled with the hoped announcement made by the BCE director, Jean Claude Trichet, set the basis for an up the hill session. Best performances were to be found in US soil, with Deckers Outdoor, Gap and Ann Taylor leading the FashionUnited Top 100.
Thursday offered an unusual trading session in a vast number of stock exchanges. In Japan, there were various companies that had unusual price changes in Japanese trading yesterday. Fast Retailing Co, Japan’s biggest clothing retailer said November sales from its Uniqlo chain fell 14.5 percent from a year earlier. The stock rose 1 percent to 13,390 yen.
Meanwhile, leading US chain retailers recorded a strong start to the holiday shopping season in November, as early promotions and solid sales on the post Thanksgiving week boosted revenues, published The Financial Times. Monthly sales data from retailers released on Thursday suggested they had benefited from an improvement in discretionary spending. Summing up, consumers gave retailers the strongest sales gains in four years as spending approached pre-recession levels in November.As a result sales rose at department stores and top brands. Macy's won 1.47%, while competitors Dillard gained 3.4% and discount chain Ross Stores was upped by 2.07%.
European equities markets were higher Thursday after the European Central Bank left interest rates at 1 percent, as expected, and said it will continue supporting liquidity in the Eurozone, while retail sales data and figures on pending home sales in the US also helped as US retailers sold more merchandise than expected in November and pending home sales were up by 10.4 percent in October. Most retailers were higher in London, led by JD Sports Fashion (LSE: JD) with a gain of 8.71 percent. Shares in the fashion label, Burberry surged 6.5 per cent, while banks and commodity stocks also booked solid gains.
