February may have ended with a bit of a fade on Friday as major markets closed the month on a weak to mixed note, but that didn’t detract from what was a very strong month, more than offsetting January’s slide.
In fact many share markets had a solid February with gains of around 4% – Australia jumped 4.2% and basket case Greece saw a 11% jump. But Japan was again weak.
According to Bloomberg, stock markets in all 24 developed nations rose in February.
Indexes in Denmark, Greece, Ireland and Portugal jumped 10% or more.
Chile’s market rose 8.1% and shares in Dubai rallied 12% as the MSCI Emerging Markets Index climbed 3.2% last month, after falling 9.5% in the preceding three months.
Bloomberg said the MSCI All-Country World Index of stocks jumped 4.9% (including dividends in February) in its strongest advance since September.
The Standard & Poor’s GSCI Total Return Index of metals, fuels and farm products (a key commodity measure) rose a solid 4.5% for the month, led by a 44% jump in coffee prices, rises for gold and oil, but a fall for copper.
The US dollar fell over February against most major currencies including the Aussie dollar. In fact the Aussie dollar rose over the month to end at 89.24 USc, up from 87.63 at the end of January.
Helping boost confidence in the eurozone, Spanish and Italian bond yields fell to around 3.5% on Friday, the lowest since early 2006 as Eurozone crisis fears continue to recede.
Greek bond yields ended under 7%, a key confidence level for investors.
Germany’s AAA credit rating was raised to stable on Friday, which follows similar upgrades for for Austria and Luxembourg. Spain, Ireland and Portugal saw upgrades last month as well.
Looking at last week, US shares rose 1.3% with the S&P 500 hitting a new record closing high on Friday, while Eurozone shares gained 0.6%. Japanese shares fell 0.2%, Chinese shares fell 2.7% and Australian shares fell 0.6%, not helped by the poor business investment data.
The S&P 500 Index rose 5.16 points, or 0.3%, on Friday to end at the record close of 1,859.53.
That was up 1.3% for the week and 4.3% for the month. The Dow rose 49.06 points, or 0.3%, to 16,321.71 on Friday, adding 1.4% on the week and nearly 4% over the month.
And The Nasdaq lost 10.81 points, or 0.3%, to 4,308.12 on Friday, but still was 1.1% higher on the week and up 5% for the month.
The Stoxx Europe 600 index rose 0.2% to close at 338.02, ending the month 4.8% higher. On the week, the benchmark added 0.6%.
In London, the FTSE 100 index lost 0.4% for the week, but was up 4.6% for the month.
Germany’s DAX 30 index rose 1.1% on Friday for a gain of 0.4% for the week and 4.1% for February.
France’s CAC 40 index added 0.3% on Friday, 0.6% for the week and 5.8% for the month.
And while Greek bond yields fell under 7% for the first time in years, the country’s small sharemarket stood out with a 1.3% gain on Friday and an 11% jump for the month.
The MSCI emerging markets index rose on Friday to end February up 3.2% and clearly stronger than January which saw big losses.
Asian markets were mixed.
The Tokyo market fell 0.2% last week and 0.5% in February and is still close to 9% down for the year so far.
The Shanghai market lost 2.7% last week as the government-engineered fall in the value of the yuan continued on Friday for a ninth day in a row. As a result, the yuan had its biggest weekly fall on record.
Hong Kong fell 1.2% last week, Australia and Singapore fell by 0.6% and 0.2% respectively, but the NZ market rose 1.3%.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index rose 5.9% from its low on February 4.
In Australia, the 4.2% rise in the ASX 200 wiped out January’s 3.3% loss.
In fact the local market rose 8.1% from the low on February 5 to the high on February 25.
February’s gains were driven by the usual duo – banks and big miners.
The ASX 200 Index rose 215 points in February to 5404.8, while the All Ordinaries Index added 4.1% to 5415.4. The market is now 0.7% higher for the year.
The Commonwealth Bank rose 1% to $74.66, Westpac Banking Corporation added 8.9% for a solid month to $33.47, ANZ Banking Group lifted 7.5% to $32.14 and the NAB was up 5% to $34.74
BHP Billiton added 5.5% to $38.38 and Rio Tinto rose 2.1% to $66.84.
But the spot price for iron ore, landed in China, lost nearly 4% last month to $US118 a tonne.
Australia’s biggest gold producer, Newcrest Mining, jumped nearly 17%, thanks to a better than expected result and the rise in gold prices.
Higher oil prices helped push Woodside Petroleum up 1.6% to $37.95.
QBE Insurance Group climbed 12.4% to $12.82, despite a big loss and a lower dividend, and AMP jumped 12.6% to $4.83 despite reporting fall in annual profit and cutting dividend.
Telstra fell 1.8% to $5.05 after delivering a solid half-year result and higher interim dividend.
Amcor, which fell 5.7% to $10.11 and Coca-Cola Amatil lost 3.4% to $11.30.
In commodities, Comex gold in New York futures fell on Friday night, our time.
April gold fell $US10.20, or 0.8%, for the session to settle at $US1,321.60, down 0.2% for the week but up a solid 6.2% for the month.
New York Crude oil for April delivery rose 0.2%, to settle at $102.59 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Oil futures gained around 0.4% on the week and 5.2% for February.
On the ICE Futures exchange in London, Brent crude for April delivery added 11c, or 0.1% to $US109.07 a barrel, with the contract about 3% higher for the month.
Back on Nymex, natural-gas futures saw their April contract up 10c, or 2.2%, to $4.61 per million British thermal units. Natural gas, which has rallied sharply this winter in the face of heavy snow and cold US temperatures, gave back gains in February, leaving the commodity with a monthly decline of nearly 7%, based on the most-active contracts.
Back on Comex, April platinum shed $6.60, or 0.5%, to $US1,446.80 an ounce, with prices trading around 5.2% higher for the month. June palladium rose 60c, or 0.1%, to $US744.45 an ounce, with most-active futures prices up about 6% for February.
High-grade copper for May delivery closed down at $US3.19 a pound, with prices for the most-active contract down 0.3% for the month.
It was copper’s second monthly loss in a row.
Nickel prices jumped 5.3% last month, and are up 27% so far this year.
Coffee prices surged 44% on the big drought in Brazil for the largest monthly rise for 44 years.
Coffee prices have risen more than 60% so far in 2014 because of the big dry in Brazil (which could be about to ease because of forecast rains in the next week).
