Market Update: Japanese and US shares continue to climb, European markets are mixed – 16.05.2013

Source: Henderson Global Investors

Wall Street shares rose once again on Wednesday (Dow Jones 0.8%, S&P 500 1.0%) as increased optimism over growth in the world’s largest economy and expectations that central bank stimulus will maintain the rally brought buyers to the market. All ten S&P sectors rose but the largest gains were in financials.

Overnight in Asia, while Australian shares fell as falling commodity prices continued to hurt miners, Chinese shares recovered from the previous session’s falls (Shanghai Composite up 0.4%). Japan continued its outperformance with the Nikkei 225 climbing above 15,000 for the first time since January 2008 as the yen weakened to its lowest level since October 2008.

In Europe, economic data released early this morning revealed mixed results. While Germany's economy crept back into growth in the first quarter of the year after a sharp contraction at the end of 2012, France slipped into recession. At the time of writing, markets are presenting a mixed picture with the FTSE Eurofirst 300 up 0.2%, while the FTSE 100 is down by the same amount.