DJI- NEW YORK, April 26 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks rose for a third day on Thursday after upbeat housing data and stronger-than-expected results from companies, including Citrix Systems Inc , overshadowed some high-profile earnings misses.
An index of pending home sales rose to nearly a two-year high in March, sending the Philadelphia Stock Exchange index of housing-related shares <.HGX> up 3 percent. Shares of homebuilder Lennar climbed 5.7 percent to $27.38.
During the regular session, the positive news on the housing front helped the market overcome data showing a stumbling labor market recovery. Initial claims for jobless benefits fell slightly in the latest week, but missed forecasts. [ID:nL2E8FQ37P]
"You can get cautious right here, but do not get bearish. There are too many good things happening," said Jeffrey Saut, chief investment strategist of Raymond James Financial in St. Petersburg, Florida.
The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> rose 113.90 points, or 0.87 percent, to close at 13,204.62. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.SPX> advanced 9.29 points, or 0.67 percent, to 1,399.98. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.IXIC> gained 20.98 points, or 0.69 percent, to 3,050.61.
Wednesday's rally helped to purge a lot of April's losses brought on by investors' worries over prospects for a seasonally weak market in May as well as signs that Europe's debt crisis was getting worse.
NYMEX- NEW YORK, April 26 (Reuters) - U.S. crude futures rose on Thursday as upbeat March pending home sales added to optimism about the outlook for energy demand.
The pending home sales report offset disappointing U.S. jobless claims data and helped counter the bearish effect of a crude inventory rise in the United States reported by the Energy Information Administration on Wednesday. [EIA/S]
* On the New York Mercantile Exchange, June crude rose 43 cents, or 0.41 percent, to settle at $104.55 a barrel, having traded from $103.84 to $104.92. That intraday peak was near the 50-day moving average of $105.06.
* Five North Sea Forties crude oil cargoes loading in May have been delayed after a production halt at Nexen's Buzzard oilfield, a trading source said on Thursday. The source said that Buzzard, which shut down over the weekend, was ramping up on Thursday after being restarted on Wednesday. [ID:nL9E8CA00X]
* Seaborne oil exports from OPEC, excluding Angola and Ecuador, will fall by 20,000 barrels per day in the four weeks to May 12, UK consultancy Oil Movements said. [ID:nL6E8FQDD8]
* A Russian diplomat said on Wednesday that Iran and Western nations had shown interest in a Russian proposal aimed to help defuse the standoff over Tehran's nuclear program, but suggested it had not been the focus of talks earlier this month. [ID:nL6E8FQ4BM]
* South Korea will make sharp cuts in imports of Iranian crude from June as tightening Western sanctions make it impossible to secure insurance coverage for tankers, industry and company sources said. [ID:nL3E8FQ5HU]
* The Chicago Board Options Exchange's Oil Volatility Index <.OVX> fell to its lowest level in nearly five years intraday on Thursday, dropping below 25. [ID:nL2E8FQ4BO]
* Oil will be supported by Iranian tensions even as top producers pump at near full capacity, though the second quarter looks set for traditional seasonal price weakening, a Reuters poll showed. [O/POLL]
CBOT SOYBEAN- Chicago Board of Trade soybean futures closed higher in the old-crop months on big export sales to China and waning crop prospects in South America.
Spot May gained nearly 20 cents per bushel premium on new-crop November on bull-spreading as traders bought old-crop contracts such as May SK2 and sold new-crop months such as November SX2.
USDA's weekly export sales report showed that net export sales of U.S. soybeans during the week ended last Thursday totaled 1,409,300 tonnes, above a range of estimates for 900,000 to 1,250,000 tonnes. [nEAP10AQ04] The USDA export sales highlights showed that old-crop sales to China totaled 603,800 tonnes and new-crop sales to China totaled 185,700 tonnes. [nIGB26E228]
Occasional bouts of rainfall in the Midwest over the next two weeks will slow the corn and soybean seeding pace but no major problems are expected, according to Commodity Weather Group. CWG also said frosty weather expected in the northern and eastern Midwest over the weekend would cause only minor damage to crops.
The Taiwan Sugar Corp. Has rejected all offers and made no purchase in a tender to buy 23,000 tonnes of U.S. origin corn and 12,000 tonnes of U.S. origin soybeans which closed on Thursday, European traders said. [nL6E8FQ3Q2]
Malaysian palm oil futures slipped on Thursday as global economic uncertainty and expectations of improving production weighed on the market, although recovering exports and a smaller soybean crop in Argentina limited losses. [nL3E8FQ32H] May was above all key moving averages and the nine-day RSI was at 73.
FCPO-SINGAPORE, April 26 (Reuters) - Malaysian palm oil futures slipped on Thursday as global economic uncertainty and expectations of improving production weighed on the market, although recovering exports and a smaller soybean crop in Argentina limited losses.
Despite the Federal Reserve's assurance that its very easy monetary policy will be kept in place for as long as needed, investors remained sceptical, worrying that the lingering euro zone debt crisis could slow growth and dampen demand.
"The underlying fundamentals still look quite good. Market is down as traders expect production should pick up in the month ahead. Another thing is economic concerns may be eating into demand," said James Ratnam, an analyst with TA Securities in Malaysia.
Benchmark July palm oil futures on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange fell 0.3 percent to close at 3,500 ringgit ($1,146) per tonne.
Traded volumes stood at 29,661 lots of 25 tonnes each, higher than the usual 25,000 lots.
Malaysian palm oil exports for the first 25 days of the month dropped a slight 2 and 3 percent, according to cargo surveyors Societe Generale de Surveillance and Intertek Testing Services respectively. [PALM/ITS][PALM/SGS]
Despite the fall, market players see the numbers as an improvement compared to the 5 percent decline seen in the first 20 days of the month. Traders said that demand from major food buyers China and India has been picking up, contributing to stronger buying interest in the edible oil.
Shipments to Europe were also higher compared to a month ago as demand from the biodiesel industry returned after winter.
Hamburg-based oilseeds analyst Oil World this week cut its forecast for Argentina's 2012 soy output to 42.5 million tonnes, reinforcing views of a tight global oilseed supply. [ID:nL5E8FN7X0]
Reuters market analyst Wang Tao had a bearish view, saying palm oil will clear a support at 3,439 ringgit per tonne and fall further to 3,395 ringgit. [ID:nL3E8FQ29B]
REGIONAL EQUITY- BANGKOK, April 26 (Reuters) - Southeast Asian stock markets ended mostly higher on Thursday, with Philippine shares climbing to fresh all-time highs and Thai stocks hitting their highest in more than three weeks on optimism fuelled by the U.S. Federal
Reserve's commitment to support growth. Fund flows appeared favourable, with the Philippines <.PSI> posting $16.5 million worth of foreign buying, Thomson Reuters data showed. Malaysian bourse said foreign investors bought shares for 138.70 million ringgit ($45.35 million).
