Thursday 26 April 2012

UK in recession, US durable goods orders plunge, stocks jump

Wednesday's major economic data were negative.

The UK economy has fallen into recession. The economy shrank 0.2 percent in the first quarter after having contracted 0.3 percent in the previous quarter.

In the US, durable goods orders plunged 4.2 percent in March, the largest decline since January 2009, dragged down by a 12.5 percent plunge in transportation equipment orders.

The Federal Reserve left monetary policy unchanged after its latest policy meeting on Wednesday, with Chairman Ben Bernanke saying that US monetary policy was “more or less in the right place”.

Despite the lack of positives, markets rose anyway on Wednesday. The S&P 500 rose 1.4 percent while the NASDAQ 100 jumped 2.7 percent. The STOXX Europe 600 gained 1.0 percent. Oil rose 0.6 percent.

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