Currencies

• EUR/USD The euro maintained yesterday's gain versus the dollar after the EU said Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos made "good progress" in a second round of talks with the EU and IMF aimed to avoid default.
  • The 17-nation euro fetched $1.3717 from $1.3702.
  
  

• USD/JPY The yen continued to increase against the dollar amid concern global growth is slowing and before the Federal Reserve ends its two-day meeting.
  • The yen rose to 76.37 per dollar at 1:38 p.m. in Tokyo from 76.45 in New York yesterday.
  
  

• USD/USD The Canadian dollar continued to decrease versus the U.S dollar as the International Monetary Fund cut its forecast for global economic growth and reduced projections for Canada.
  • Canada's dollar depreciated 0.2 percent to 99.27 cents per U.S. dollar at 5 p.m. in Toronto, compared with 99.07 cents yesterday.

Commodities

• Gold gained to trade above $1,800 an ounce as concern the global economy is weakening fuelled demand for haven investments including bullion.
  • Immediate-delivery gold rose as much as 0.6 percent to $1,814.82 an ounce, and last traded at $1,812.90 at 12:57 p.m. Singapore time.
  • December-delivery bullion in New York rose 0.4 percent to $1,815.40 an ounce..

• Oil fell in New York as investors speculated that demand will falter amid increasing U.S. crude stockpiles in the world's biggest consumer of the commodity.
  • The American Petroleum Institute said supplies rose 2.57 million barrels last week.
  • Crude for November delivery slipped as much as 60 cents to $86.32 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange and was at $86.84 at 2 p.m. Sydney time

Equities

• US Stocks fell as concern that Greece wasn't closer to receiving more financial aid offset speculation the Federal Reserve will act to stimulate growth.
  • Alcoa Inc. (AA), Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ) and Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) slid at least 1.1 percent.
  • The S&P 500 fell 0.2 percent to 1,202.09 at 4 p.m. in New York.
  • The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 7.65 points, or 0.1 percent, to 11,408.66.


• European stocks climbed as Greece debt talks with the European Union and the International Monetary Fund were "productive" and investors speculated the Federal Reserve will provide more stimulus.
  • EON AG and RWE AG (RWE), Germany's biggest utilities, climbed more than 3.5 percent.
  • The U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index advanced 2 percent.
  • Germany's DAX Index gained 2.9 percent and France's CAC 40 Index gained 2.9 percent.

• Asian stocks were mostly higher today, but buyers were not certain amid caution ahead of the outcome of the U.S. Federal Reserve's two-day meeting due later in the global day.
  • The MSCI Asia Pacific Index rose 0.5 percent to 118.43 as of 1:56 p.m. in Tokyo.
  • Japan's Nikkei Stock Average was up 0.5%.
  • Hong Kong's Hang Seng was off 0.3% and the Shanghai Composite Index rose 2.2%.

Sources: Bloomberg, FT