Strong trading momentum in crude oil persists and the benchmark contract rises further to 72.7 in European morning. Investors remain thrilled by the huge draw in crude inventory despite weak fuel demand. Advance in equity markets and weakness in USD also support prices. Stock markets in Europe open higher Thursday. UK's FTSE 100 Index climbs +1% tpo 5172 although the country's retail sales stayed flat in August from a month ago. The market had expected a +0.1% gain. On annual basis, the gauge rose +2.1% while July's sales were revised down to +2.9%. Both of DAX (Germany) and CAC 40 (France) gain +0.6% in morning session.
Stocks in Asia performed very well with the MSCI Asia Pacific Index rising +1.2%, In Japan, the Nikkei 225 Stock Average surged +1.7% to 10444 as the Bank of Japan upgraded its economic outlook on the nation. The BOJ stated that Japan' economy has shown 'signs of recovery', compared with the 'stopped worsening' comment made in the previous month. However, the central bank remained concerned about the downside risk to growth and hence maintained the policy rate at 0.1%.....Read the entire article with charts!
