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Category: Stockmarket / Currency / Markets / Futures

US shares rally despite European slide

Thursday, 7 Jul 2016 06:27:36 | Rebecca Hyam

Wall Street's modest 0.5 per cent rise defied steep falls across Europe. (Chip East, file photo: Reuters)

Shares in the United States rallied overnight, led by strong gains for health and technology stocks, and some encouraging signs within the US services sector.

The minutes from the Federal Reserve's last meeting were also released, shedding little light on the timing of the Fed's next interest rate increase.

The minutes also revealed that policymakers were not willing to raise rates until they were able to digest the Brexit vote's outcome and possible fallout.

Elsewhere, a report by the Institute for Supply Management showed activity reached a seven-month high in June, with new orders surging and companies hiring more workers.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 78 points, or 0.4 per cent, at 17,918.

The S&P 500 Index put on 0.5 per cent to 2,099 and the Nasdaq out-performed, with gains of 0.75 per cent to 4,859.

It was a different story in Europe, where London's FTSE 100 Index lost 1.25 per cent to 6,463.

There were even steeper falls on the continent, with Germany's DAX down 1.7 per cent, France's CAC40 off 1.9 per cent and Italy's market dropping 2.3 per cent on further worries about its banks.

The local share market is expected to follow Wall Street higher and, at 6:45am (AEST), the ASX SPI 200 was up 0.7 per cent to 5,190.

The Australian dollar was worth 75.15 US cents, having jumped overnight.

On the cross-rates, it was buying 67.68 euro cents, 58.13 British pence, 76.13 Japanese yen and $NZ1.054.

West Texas crude oil had risen to $US47.32 a barrel, the price of a barrel of Tapis had increased to $US47.49 and spot gold was slightly higher at $US1,363.53 an ounce.

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