Shares Hit 10 Month Highs

  A big end to the week, erasing for the time being, doubts about the strength of the current rebound. & #160;World stockmarkets & #160;hit 10-month highs and oil topped & #36;US74 per barrel on Friday:The causes: a & #160;strong 7.2% rise in sales of existing US homes in July, and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's upbeat & #160;outlook for the US economy.But it was & #160;qualified & #160;optimism; he again pointed out that the recovery won't feel like one because of high unemployment and subdued demand.That saw American & #160;markets end the week at new highs for 2009, while European shares had & #160;their highest close since early November.But Asian markets had weakened earlier Friday, despite a small recovery Friday for Chinese markets, which still ended the week off almost 4%.The US dollar, the yen and US Government bonds fell as & #160;investors again moved into riskier assets.Sales of existing houses & #160;rose for a fourth straight month and hit & #160;their fastest sales pace in nearly two years.But analysts pointed out that 31% of the sales were foreclosures, up from around 26% in & #160;June.And also boosting is Government help for home buyers (something like Australia's first home owners scheme). That ends in around two months.Mr Bernanke's comments followed the housing report. He & #160;told the Fed conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, that & quot;prospects for a return to growth in the near term appear good.He warned that growth is likely to be slow and unemployment will remain high, but & #160;investors weren't listening, up went prices for the day and the week's previous & #160;doubts were erased.The Dow & #160;finished up 155.91 points, or 1.67%, at 9,505.96; & #160;the Standard & #38; Poor's 500 & #160;rose 18.76 points, or 1.86%, to 1,026.13. & #160;Nasdaq jumped 31.68 points, or 1.59%, to 2,020.90.The S & #38;P 500 and the Nasdaq hit 10-month intraday highs, while the Dow hit its & #160;highest level in nine months.The S & #38;P is now up 51.7% from a 12-year closing low set on March 9.August car sales and production figures will be strong because of the cash for clunker's program that ends tonight, our time.The & #160;offers auto buyers discounts of as much as & #36;US4,500 to trade in older cars and trucks (SUVs) for new, more fuel-efficient vehicles.It has recorded more than 489,000 dealer transactions valued at & #36;US2.04 billion in rebates, according to US Transportation Department data released on Friday.That will boost car output next months as well, and possibly October as & #160;additional models are made to replenish stocks.The danger is that US car sales will tank in the last quarter because of what's called the 'drag-forward' of demand.In Europe the & #160;FTSEurofirst 300 index rose & #160;2.3%, supported by a greater-than-expected improvement in a euro zone manufacturing and services survey, as well as the US housing figures.Europe is up nearly 50% since reaching a multi-year low in early March.The MSCI world equity index jumped 1.64% to its highest level since early October.The MSCI stock index for emerging markets & #160;climbed 1.11%.The Dow Jones Stoxx 600 Index also & #160;rose & #160;to its highest level since October.The Index added 2.7% to 234.85 to be up 49% since March 9.National markets & #160;rose in all 18 western European markets this week. London's Footsie & #160;and Germany's DAX both climbed 2.9%. France's CAC 40 advanced 3.5%.London is up 38% since March, much less than many other markets.In Australia the & #160;market & #160;closed flat, with stronger & #160;energy shares and positive company earnings reports offset by worries about lower property and health-care stocks.At the close, the & #160;ASX200 was up 3.7 points, or 0.1%, at 4377.5, & #160;and the & #160;All Ordinaries gained 3.8 points, or 0.1%.For the week the market fell around 3.6%.But it will be up around 70 points this morning, judging by a 69 point rise on the sharemarket futures trading on Saturday.Elsewhere in Asia markets were lower and the MSCI Asia Pacific Index lost 3.2%, slipping from the highest level for the year on the previous Friday, & #160;August 14.The index is up 57% since dropping to the lowest in almost six years on March 9.Taiwan fell 5.9% over the week, the region's worst performance.China's markets rose 1.9% on Friday to be down 3.8% for the week, better than the larger falls the two previous weeks.The Shanghai Composite Index had rebounded 4.5% on & #160;Thursday, & #160;the biggest rise in almost five months after dropping to a two-month low of & #160;2,785.58 Wednesday  

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