By IFCMarkets

US stock market advanced on Wednesday as market sentiment was supported by rising oil and upbeat housing data. The dollar strengthened, the live dollar index shows the ICE US Dollar index edged up 0.4% to 94.515. The Dow Jones Industrial Averageclosed 0.24% higher at 18096.27, led by 2.7% gain in Goldman Sachs. But the advance of the blue chip index was capped by a 4.8% loss in Coca-Cola shares after the company reported falling revenues for fourth straight quarter. The S&P 500 edged up 0.08% to 2102.4 with five of the ten main sectors closing in positive territory led by financial stocks, up 0.89%. Besides several better- than-expected quarterly reports investor optimism was buoyed also by strong housing data: existing home sales jumped 5.1% in March, signaling confidence in economy after recent data prompted downward revision of first quarter GDP to 0.2%. Today at 14:30 CET initial jobless claims and unemployment claims will be released in US. The tentative outlook is negative. At the same time Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Index for February will be published, it is expected to slip to negative 8.1 after hitting 12.4 in January. At 15:00 CET National Association of Home Builders February Housing Price Index will be released. The tentative outlook is negative. At 16:00 CET ConferenceBoard Leading Indicator for March will be published. The tentative outlook is positive.

European stocks closed higher on Wednesday for a third straight session helped by gains in commodity shares. The euro fell against the dollar ahead of the European Central Bank policy decision today. The Stoxx Europe 600 index gained 0.4%. Oil and mining companies were the best performers: Tullow Oil jumped 5.1%, Royal Dutch Shell closed up 0.7%. Miners benefited from higher metals prices: Anglo American rallied 5.2% and Fresnillo plc jumped 3.1%. Germany’s DAX 30 gained 0.7% to 10421.29, France’s CAC 40 index added 0.6%. UK’s FTSE 100 edged up 0.1% despite mixed labor market data: while the unemployment rate for the three months to February remained unchanged at 5.1%, average weekly earnings over a three month period ending in December fell to 1.8% from 2.1%. Today at 13:45 CET the European Central Bank Interest Rate Decision will be announced. The ECB is expected to hold interest rates unchanged at record lows. At 16:00 CET advance Consumer Confidence Index for April will be released in euro-zone. The tentative outlook is negative.

Asian stocks hit five and half month highs today as rising oil boosted investor risk appetite. Nikkei closed 2.7% higher as yen weakened against the US dollar. Mitsubishi Motor shares remained untraded today after slumping 20.5% on Wednesday as the company admitted it manipulated test data to overstate the fuel economy of 625000 cars sold in Japan.

Oil futures are rising today as the International Energy Agency (IEA) forecasted the biggest fall this year in non-OPEC production in a generation. IEA estimates the decline in non-OPEC oil supply in 2016 will amount to about 700000 barrels per day, the biggest in the last 25 years. Prices closed at record high on Wednesday after US data showed a fall in weekly domestic crude production for a sixth straight week. June Brent crude rose 4% to $45.80 a barrel on London’s ICE Futures exchange.

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