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Monday, May 2, 2011

Laden Killed


U.S. stock futures rallied on Monday, as the dollar jumped while crude-oil and silver futures sank, after President Barack Obama announced that U.S. forces had killed al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan.
Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 78 points, or 0.6%, to 12833. S&P 500 index futures were up 0.5% at 1366.50 and Nasdaq futures were up 0.5% at 2411.75.
"The United States has conducted an operation that killed Osama bin Laden, the leader of al Qaeda," President Obama said in a televised address.
Bin Laden topped the list of the most-wanted fugitives in the world for the past 10 years, following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, in the U.S.
"It's a positive for markets," said Sarabjit Kour Nangra, vice-president of research at Angel Broking in Mumbai. "It should also bring some relief for crude oil prices, though that's likely to be only temporary, oil remains more driven by fundamentals and tensions going on in the Middle East."
The dollar index, which tracks the U.S. unit against a basket of six major currencies, rose to 73.032 from 72.969 in late North American trading on Friday.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light sweet crude futures for June delivery fell $2.08, or 1.8%, to $111.85 a barrel in the Globex electronic trading. Oil had closed out last week at its highest level since September 2008, to settle at $113.93 a barrel on Friday.
Silver futures, which have challenged gold as a safe-haven investment recently, slumped 6.5% to $45.43 an ounce. After initially dipping below $1,550 an ounce, gold futures for June delivery rose 0.1% to $1,557.10.
The moves came after the Dow industrials closed at their highest level in nearly three years Friday, helped by a rally in shares of blue-chip component Caterpillar Inc. (CAT), which posted better-than-expected earnings.
U.S. stocks finished with a weekly gain of 2.4% and a gain of 4% for the month of April.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke last week signaled the Fed would keep providing stimulus to the U.S. economy indefinitely after the central banks left interest rates near zero.
In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 jumped 1.6% to finish at 10,004.20. South Korea's Kospi added 1.7%, while Australia's S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.2%.
Among the U.S. companies reporting earnings Monday were Humana Inc. (HUM), which reported a profit of of $1.86 a share, above the forecast of $1.49. Dish Network Corp. (DISH) reported a profit of $1.22 a share, above the forecast of 68 cents a share.
On the data front, the ISM manufacturing index for April is due at 10 a.m. Eastern along with March construction spending.