Markets volatile, eurozone industrial orders and US consumer confidence rise

Markets started badly on Tuesday but steadied by the end of the day. Reuters reports:

U.S. stocks and the euro pared deep losses to end mostly flat on Tuesday as investors had second thoughts that a festering euro zone banking crisis will spread worldwide and strangle a reviving economy.

A late-day rally pulled the benchmark S&P 500 into positive territory minutes before the closing bell and wiped out most of the session's losses for the Dow, which closed above the key barrier of 10,000.

U.S. Treasuries gave up most of their gains as equities rebounded from a broad sell-off and the euro staged a rebound from multi-year lows. Earlier, major stock indexes from Asia to Europe closed sharply lower and Wall Street fell more than 3 percent...

The euro was down 0.02 percent at $1.2348, recovering from losses of more than 1 percent.

Earlier, North Korea had been added to the list of market worries. From Bloomberg:

South Korea’s won fell the most in more than a year and the nation’s stocks slumped following a report by a defector group that North Korean leader Kim Jong Il ordered the military to prepare for conflict.

The currency plunged to a 10-month low after Kim told armed forces to get ready for “combat” in a message broadcast on May 20, the Seoul-based North Korea Intellectuals Solidarity group reported on its website. The order came after the South accused his regime of sinking of one of its warships, killing 46. The currency pared losses on speculation authorities intervened as the finance ministry said it was watching the market.

However, economic reports released on Tuesday were relatively positive.

The troubled euro zone actually saw industrial orders rise at the fastest pace in 10 years in March, according to Reuters.

The European Union's statistics office, Eurostat, said industrial new orders in the 16 countries using the euro jumped 5.2 percent month-on-month in the euro zone for a 19.8 percent year-on-year rise.

The monthly rise is the highest since June 2007 and the annual increase is the strongest in a decade.

Meanwhile, UK first quarter GDP growth has been revised up, according to another Reuters reports.

Britain's economy grew slightly faster than initially estimated in the first three months of this year after a rebound in manufacturing and business services, but economists expect headwinds to come.

The Office for National Statistics said the economy grew by 0.3 percent in the first quarter, up from an initial estimate of 0.2 percent.

And while markets have been nervous of late, US consumer confidence actually improved in May. Bloomberg reports:

Consumers gained more confidence in May than projected as a recovering U.S. economy raised expectations hiring will pick up in coming months.

The Conference Board’s confidence index rose to 63.3, exceeding all estimates of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News and the highest level in two years, according to a report from the New York-based private research group...

The S&P/Case-Shiller home-price index covering 20 cities increased 2.3 percent from March 2009, the group said today in New York. The median forecast of economists surveyed projected a 2.5 percent advance.