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                      DECPG Daily
        Economics and Financial Market Commentary
                   November 11, 2009
  Mick Riordan (x31289), Cristina Savescu (x80812), Nadia Islam Spivak (x80504)
    Eung Ju Kim (x85804), Shane Streifel (x33867), Annette De Kleine (x34710)
  You’ll find recent issues of this Daily and lots of other current analysis and high-frequency data at our
              intranet website: http://gem or for external users http://www.worldbank.org/gem.

Global equities extend gains. Shares in Asia and Europe were higher Wednesday, as
strong industrial production data from China and a slew of positive earnings results from
key European companies, prompted investors to increase their equity holdings. Shares
were also lifted by the prospect of a persistence of near-zero U.S. interest rates. Rising
global bourses have occurred against the background of a weaker dollar (which
breached a 15-month low today) and higher gold prices. Global equities, as measured
by the MSCI World Index, advanced 0.5% toward its highest levels in three weeks. The
gauge has surged 70% thus far from 2009 lows of early March. Meanwhile, emerging
market stocks posted their strongest six-day rally since July, with the benchmark MSCI-
EM climbing 1% today. Europe’s Dow Jones Stoxx-600 Index advanced 0.9%, while the
MSCI Asia-Pacific Index added 0.7%, extending its four-day gain to 3.6%. And U.S.
equities extended the global gains, with the S&P-500 advancing 0.7% to a 13-month
high.
In Japan…private orders for Japanese machinery surged 10.5% in September (m/m),
after rising 0.5% in August, posting the first two-month streak of rising demand for
investment goods since early 2008. Machinery orders provide an indication of corporate
capital spending, the decline in which appears to be bottoming out. Machinery orders
fell 9% and 5% in the first two quarters of the year (q/q), but the falloff in domestic
investment demand appears to be bottoming out in the third quarter, as orders slipped
0.9% (q/q), despite some volatility in month-on-month demand [see Chart at http://gem
or http://www.worldbank.org/gem]. The Japanese Cabinet Office announced a new
projection for business capital spending, seen to increase 1% over the fourth quarter
(q/q), recording positive growth for the first since Q1-2008.




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The Daily Brief is a summary of economic news items for Bank staff whose responsibilities require that
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