GLOBAL MARKETS-Global stocks, euro rally on debt crisis optimism
NEW YORK, Oct 21 (Reuters) - Global equities and the euro rallied on Friday as investors bet that European leaders in crucial meetings over the next few days will move forward in resolving the euro zone's two-year-old debt crisis.
"The market is giving the benefit of the doubt that they are going to come up with some sort of a meaningful stopgap measure in Europe," said Boris Schlossberg, director of currency research at GFT in New York.
COMMODITIES-Copper leads pre-Europe summit rebound, Brent off
NEW YORK, Oct 21 (Reuters) - Commodities mostly rose on Friday to end a tumultuous week, with copper alone rallying 6 percent to regain almost all it lost the previous day, on optimism over a weekend summit called to solve Europe's woes.
"There is renewed hope that European leaders will pull something out of the bag and manage to come up with a solution to the debt crisis," said Daniel Briesemann, commodity analyst at Commerzbank in Frankfurt.
Hedge Funds Bullish Raw-Material Bets Jump Most in Two Months: Commodities (Bloomberg)
Hedge funds increased bullish bets on commodities by the most since August on mounting optimism the global economy will avoid another recession, boosting prospects for raw-materials demand. Money managers raised combined net-long positions across 18 U.S. futures and options by 12 percent to 737,647 contracts in the week ended Oct. 18, Commodity Futures Trading Commission data show. Wagers increased most in energy and agriculture, led by heating oil, gasoline, coffee and soybeans. The Standard & Poor’s GSCI gauge of 24 commodities climbed 6.7 percent in October, on track for the biggest monthly advance this year, as European leaders moved closer to resolving the region’s debt crisis. Reports last week showed U.S. housing starts jumped to the highest since April 2010 and manufacturing unexpectedly accelerated, increasing investor confidence that the world’s largest economy isn’t tipping back into recession.
Oil mixed ahead of EU meetings on debt woes
NEW YORK, Oct 21 (Reuters) - Oil futures were mixed in thin volume trade on Friday, with Brent pulling back late as investors exercised caution ahead of meetings starting Sunday where European leaders will try to hammer out a plan to address the region's debt crisis.
"The market has given as much benefit of the doubt as it can regarding the solution for the euro zone debt crisis. Some selling is to be expected ahead of the weekend and the uncertainty of a plan being concluded next week," said John Kilduff, partner at hedge fund Again Capital LLC in New York.
Natural gas ends down slightly on growing supply
NEW YORK, Oct 21 (Reuters) - U.S. natural gas futures ended slightly lower on Friday after two straight gains, as concerns about growing supplies continued to weigh on sentiment despite prospects for more heating demand late next week.
"The supply-demand balance is looser than last year and last year was loose, and storage is closing in on record levels, but even with bearish fundamentals prices could move up next week ahead of the heating season," said Steve Mosley at SMC Advisory Services.
Kuwait pumping 2.9 mln barrels per day-oil minister
DEAD SEA, Jordan, Oct 23 (Reuters) - Kuwaiti oil minister Mohammad al-Busairi said on Sunday his country was producing 2.9 million barrels of oil per day and described current oil prices as "reasonable for the consumer and (for) production levels". Busairi, speaking to reporters at the World Economic Forum at the Dead Sea in Jordan, said additional oil pumped into the market by Saudi Arabia and Kuwait had helped bring down prices from levels in June, after they were pushed up by fighting in OPEC producer Libya.
Malaysia Petronas to award jobs to unlicensed firms-report
KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 23 (Reuters) - Malaysia's state oil firm Petronas will award contracts to unlicensed energy services companies to encourage greater competition in the oil and gas industry, The Edge weekly newspaper said citing unidentified sources.
The move would be a departure from the current practice where Petronas only hands out jobs to licensed players in certain segments such as oil and gas equipment makers and offshore support vessel operators, the report said.
Mexico's oil output, exports fall in Sept from Aug
MEXICO CITY, Oct 21 (Reuters) - Mexico's state oil company Pemex said on Friday oil production fell to 2.489 million barrels per day in September from 2.552 million bpd in August.
Exports also slipped to 1.242 million bpd from 1.440 million in August.
Euro Coal-Dec S.African trades at $109.75/T
LONDON, Oct 21 (Reuters) - Prompt physical coal prices were stable on Friday after having fallen through the week by over $5 a tonne due to weak demand in Europe and Asia, as a rise in oil prices provided some support.
"We've seen more offers since Coaltrans. There were not many DES ARA offers today, but there's still a lot of length in the market and prices seem to be on the way down," one trader said.
Gold Declines as European Debt-Crisis Plan Curbs Demand for Haven Assets (Bloomberg)
Gold fell after European leaders outlined plans to aid banks and prepared to unveil a blueprint to resolve the region’s sovereign debt crisis on Oct. 26, curbing demand for haven assets. Immediate-delivery gold dropped as much as 0.4 percent to $1,635.75 an ounce and traded at $1,637.05 at 12:40 p.m. in Melbourne. Gold for December delivery was little changed at $1,638.20 an ounce. At the 13th crisis-management summit in 21 months, officials agreed bank-capital needs -- estimated at 100 billion euros ($138.6 billion) by a person familiar with the talks -- will be met first by banks, then governments. Only when national efforts fail can governments tap a rescue fund. The summit, held in Brussels, excluded a forced restructuring of Greece’s debt.
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