US markets hit fresh 13-mth closing high; Asia mixed

US markets hit fresh 13-month closing highs post Bernanke’s comment, weak dollar, US retail sales. Bernanke signaled plans to leave rates low for a while leading to weakness in dollar and gain in commodities. S&P 500 closed above 1100 for the first time since October 2008. Dow Jones gained 136.5 points or 1.33% to 10,407. S&P 500 was up 15.8 points or 1.45% 1,109.3 and Nasdaq was up 30 points or 1.38% to 2,197.8. US advancing sectors were Energy (+2.5%), Materials (+2.3%) and Industrials (+2.0%). CBOE VIX ended down 2% at 22.89.

Asian markets opened mixed. Shanghai Composite was up 0.6% (was up 0.6% last week Vs Sensex gain of 4.3%). Seoul Composite, KLSE Composite and Jakarta Composite were in green. While Hang Seng, Kospi, Taiwan Weighted, Nikkei 225 and Straits Times were trading in red. Europe hits 13-month closing high. CAC was up 1.5%, DAX was up 2% and FTSE was up 1.63%.

US economic data:

Retail sales rose 1.4% in October against expectations of 0.9%. Excluding autos, retail sales rose 0.2% in October against expectations of 0.4%. Empire State Manufacturing Index fell to 23.51 from 34.57, against expectations of 30.