‘It Seems That Europe is Gaining Momentum Again, Especially Germany’

Stock prices on Wall Street rose on Thursday in trading marked by a multi-hour trading halt on the Nasdaq technology market due to technical issues.

All activities on Nasdaq, the second-largest U.S. stock exchange, ceased 15 minutes past noon and resumed only after three hours.

The power outage is just the latest in a series of incidents at that exchange.

“We have automated markets to the point where we are dependent on computers. This will happen again. It is difficult to have an automated system that does not occasionally have such problems,” says Stephen Massocca, CEO of investment firm Wedbush Equity Management.

The power outage on Nasdaq resulted in the lowest trading volume since the beginning of the year. Across all U.S. markets, $4.23 billion changed hands yesterday, significantly below the average daily volume of $6.3 billion.

The Dow Jones index strengthened by 66.19 points or 0.44 percent, to 14,963 points, the S&P 500 index by 0.86 percent to 1,656 points, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq by 1.08 percent, to 3,638 points.

The Dow Jones rose for the first time in the last seven trading days, while the S&P recorded its largest daily percentage gain since August 1, but for the fifth consecutive day, it failed to break through the 50-day moving average, which stands at 1,658 points.

The rise in prices on Wall Street was supported by better-than-expected PMI indices of industrial activity in China and Europe, which bolstered optimism regarding the prospects for global economic growth.

The Chinese industrial activity index, produced by HSBC, showed growth in August, signaling that the world’s second-largest economy is likely overcoming the weakness that has affected it in recent months. In the Eurozone, industrial activities in August rose to the highest level since June 2011.

“It seems that Europe is gaining momentum again, especially Germany. The numbers are not super exciting, but they are good,” assesses Dough Cote, market strategist at ING U.S. Investment Management.

As a result, European indices also rose yesterday, recording the best trading day since the beginning of August.

The London FTSE index rose by 0.88 percent, to 6,446 points, the Frankfurt DAX by 1.36 percent, to 8,397 points, and the Paris CAC by 1.1 percent, to 4,059 points.