American shares also had a solid ending to a good week, despite the bad news from the November jobs report.
Our market will open flat this morning as a result.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rose 0.3% to 1,224.71 Saturday morning, our time, helped by the report from CBS that in an interview with it, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke hadn’t ruled out extending the central bank’s asset-purchase program beyond the stated $US600 billion.
The Dow rose 19.68 points, or 0.17%, to end at 11,382.09 and Nasdaq added 12.11 points, or 0.47% ,to 2,591.46.
It ended the best week in a month.
The Dow rose 2.6% over the week, the S&P 500 was up 3% and the Nasdaq Composite Index up 2.2%.
In Australia, the ASX200 index was up 18 points, or 0.4%, at 4694.2, after rising as high as 4717.1 in early trade.
The index rose 2.1% for the week.
The All Ordinaries index added 18.3 points today, or 0.4%, to 4780.1.
The Australian dollar extended its recent surge, jumping past 99 USc as the greenback posted its biggest drop since July.
The Aussie dollar was up nearly 3% from Thursday’s close.
The Stoxx Europe 600 Index rose 1.6%, bringing it to within 1% of the year’s high.
National benchmark indexes rose in 16 out of 18 western European markets.
Germany’s DAX Index and London’s FTSE 100 Index each gained 1.4%, while France’s CAC 40 Index advanced 0.6%.
Ireland’s ISEQ ended the week 2.8% in the wake of the bailout, and Spain’s IBEX 35 rallied 4.9% for the biggest weekly gain since July.
Spanish bank shares (and those in Ireland and Portugal) had a good week, many closing with double digit gains.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index rose 3.5% reversing three consecutive weeks of declines.
That was before the jobless figures were released and after a survey showed consumer confidence rose to the highest level in five months in November and jobless benefits over the past month on average were at a two-year low.
In Japan, the Nikkei rose 1.4%, its fifth straight weekly advance.
South Korea’s Kospi Index was up 2.9%, despite the continuing tensions with North Korea.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index rose 1.9% but Shanghai fell 1% (to take the loss since November to more than 6%).
