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GLOBAL MARKETS-Stocks hit highs, dollar at 14-month low

Published 10/14/2009, 08:10 AM
Updated 10/14/2009, 08:12 AM
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* World stocks hit 12-month high, up 0.7 percent

* Stocks boosted as JPMorgan results beat forecasts

* Dollar hits 14-month low vs euro, basket

* Gold hits record, oil at year's highs

By Tamawa Desai

LONDON, Oct 14 (Reuters) - World stocks extended 12-month highs hit on Wednesday after results from JPMorgan Chase & Co boosted investor optimism over an economic recovery, sending the dollar to 14-month lows and oil and gold higher.

U.S. stock futures rose 1.5 percent, paving the way for a higher Wall Street open, as the U.S. bank's results beat forecasts, adding to a brightening mood after chip-maker Intel Corp posted strong earnings late on Tuesday.

With Chinese trade numbers and UK and euro zone data also upbeat, MSCI's all-country world index rose 1.1 percent to 295.32, a level last seen in October a year ago.

The index is up 28 percent this year, and more than 70 percent since hitting a six-year low in March.

For a graphic showing world stocks and the dollar vs euro, click here: http://graphics.thomsonreuters.com/109/GLB_MKTH1009.gif

JPMorgan reported third-quarter net income of $3.6 billion, or 82 cents per share, beating forecasts of 52 cents.

"The results are very good for the sector. It's an absolutely definitive catalyst for a positive market and has a very positive impact on sentiment," said Geoff Wilkinson, Head of Investment Research at Mint in London.

"If the broad U.S. banking indices are supported by this then everything else will be supported as well."

Markets now await U.S. September retail sales data to gauge the strength of consumers in the world's biggest economy. Sales excluding the volatile auto sector are expected to have risen for a second month.

Results from Citigroup and Goldman Sachs are also due on Thursday.

GOLD AT RECORD, OIL AT YEAR HIGHS

European shares also rose to their highest in a year at 1,017.75, up 2.2 percent on the day, while MSCI's emerging market equities index reached its highest since mid-August 2008 above 968.

But Thailand's benchmark stock index slipped more than four percent to two-week lows as domestic financial markets tumbled on concerns over the health of the country's 81-year-old king, traders said.

Gold hit a record above $1,070 an ounce and oil rose to a 2009 peak above $75 a barrel as the dollar slipped to its weakest in more than a year against the euro and a currency basket.

"The JPMorgan results are playing through better risk appetite, which typically means a weaker dollar," said Adam Cole, global head of currency strategy at RBC in London. "As stocks continue to rally the dollar will go down."

Risk assets were also fuelled by expectations that interest rates in major economies would stay at rock-bottom levels for some time, providing cheap funding for investors.

U.S. Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Donald Kohn said on Tuesday the economy would likely be producing "well below" its potential for some time and that expectations of future inflation would more likely fall than rise.

The Bank of Japan left key interest rates unchanged at 0.1 percent as expected.

The yen got a boost after a deputy of Japan's finance minister said Tokyo should not step into the foreign exchange market just because the yen rises.

"The current yen rise is due to the dollar weakness rather than the yen's strength," Naoki Minezaki, one of the government's two senior vice finance ministers, told Reuters in an interview. "The dollar weakness is likely to persist." (Additional reporting by Jeremy Gaunt, Hapreet Bhal and Naomi Tajitsu; Editing by Patrick Graham)

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