Stocks stage comeback; euro steadies vs dollar

NEW YORK: Wall Street stocks rose and the euro steadied against the dollar on Thursday as investors tip-toed back into investments that had been beaten down recently by worries about the Greek debt crisis.

Despite some appetite for investments such as stocks and the euro, concern that Greece's debt woes might spiral into another global financial crisis have fueled a rally in high-rated government debt.

"A lot of bad news has been priced into the market. People are taking that into consideration. On a long-term valuation basis there are some bargains out there," said Randy Billhardt, head of institutional sales and trading at MLV & Co in New York.

Wall Street stocks turned higher after a weaker open, brushing aside several US economic reports that stoked fears of an economic slowdown.

A gauge of US Mid-Atlantic manufacturing activity slumped to a near two-year low in June, suggesting US factories were faltering, while the latest reports on labor and housing showed those parts of the economy are struggling.

The Dow Jones industrial average was up 74.55 points, or 0.63 percent, at 11,971.89. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was up 6.79 points, or 0.54 percent, at 1,272.21. The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 7.84 points, or 0.30 percent, at 2,639.30.

In Europe the FTSEurofirst 300 index was down 0.4 percent as the bounce on Wall Street helped it pare losses.

The MSCI world equity index was down 0.7 percent after hitting its lowest level since mid-March earlier. It had wiped out all the gains made this year.

"Generally we are trying to stabilize. The markets don't want to go too far," said Robert Zukowski, senior analyst at 4Cast Ltd in New York.

In the currency market, the euro briefly rose to $1.4201 after touching a three-week low against the dollar earlier.

Benchmark 10-year US Treasury notes were up 10/32 in price to yield 2.94 percent, down 3 basis points on the day. German Bund futures were up 0.3 percent after touching a contract high of 126.62.

US oil futures were little changed at $94.84 a barrel after losing 4 percent on Wednesday.

Spot gold prices were last at $1,526.49 an ounce, down from $1,529.85 in late New York trading on Wednesday.

Copyright Reuters, 2011