* Euro's sharp rise on solid debt auctions, hawkish ECB
* U.S. stocks open lower, Europe weak in late trade
* Energy and precious metals prices slip, grains rise
By Daniel Bases
NEW YORK, Jan 13 (Reuters) - The euro surged on Thursday,
taking on renewed vigor after better-than-forecast debt
auctions by Spain and Italy, but Wall St dipped after weak
U.S. jobless claims data.
Energy and precious metals prices could not capitalize on
a weaker greenback, but investors pushed prices higher for
grains in Chicago on food price inflation and supply
concerns.
Tokyo shares closed at an eight-month high and Shanghai
stocks rose, but European bourses weakened in late trade while
U.S shares were mostly lower. In contrast, MSCI's All-Country
World index <.MIWD00000PUS>, reached a fresh 28-month high
before paring some gains.
The euro got an extra boost after European Central Bank
President Jean-Claude Trichet said the euro-zone economy faces
short-term inflationary pressures. The ECB had earlier left
interest rates unchanged at 1 percent. []
Spanish banks provided a pocket of strength in European
stocks following the solid sovereign bond auctions in Spain
and Italy on Thursday. These followed a relatively easy sale
of Portuguese debt on Wednesday.
Analysts cautioned that the sales represented a very small
percentage of supply from those countries this year.
"We remain skeptical overall," said Mark McCormick,
currency strategist at Brown Brothers Harriman in New York.
"We don't see any strong momentum behind these moves. We think
it's just a short-term move and the euro is going to continue
to suffer for the remainder of the quarter."
The euro rose 1.64 percent to $1.3351 <EUR=> on the day,
but is still down 0.21 percent so far this year. Against the
Swiss franc, the euro reached a new 1-month high to trade at
1.2853 francs <EURCHF=>.
The dollar fell 0.22 percent against the Japanese yen to
trade at 82.76 <JPY=>. Against a basket of currencies, made up
of its major trading partners, the U.S. dollar fell 1.03
percent <.DXY>.
STOCKS EBB ON JOBLESS CLAIMS
A surprisingly large increase in new weekly claims for
U.S. jobless benefits soured the mood in the U.S. stock market
while food and energy costs boosted producer prices in
December.
The claims rose to 445,000 from 410,000 in the prior week,
the biggest one-week climb in about six months, which
countered expectations for a small drop. []
In late morning New York trade, stocks were mostly lower.
The Dow Jones industrial average <> fell 8.90 points, or
0.08 percent, to 11,746.54. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index
<.SPX> dipped 0.66 point, or 0.05 percent, to 1,285.30. The
Nasdaq Composite Index <> erased earlier losses to edge
up 4.00 points, or 0.15 percent, to 2,741.33.
Marathon Oil Corp <MRO.N> rose 8 percent to $43.77 after
it said it would spin off its refinery and pipeline operations
into a stand-alone company. []
Intel Corp <INTC.O> is scheduled to report its quarterly
results after the market closes. Its shares dipped 0.2 percent
to $21.25.
The FTSEurofirst 300 <> index of top European shares
slipped 0.63 percent to 1,156.03 points after jumping 1.5
percent to a 28-month high in the previous session.
Spain's Banco Santander <SAN.MC> and BBVA <BBVA.MC>
climbed 4.85 percent and 5.3 percent respectively, while
Spain's IBEX35 <> rose 2.54 percent after Madrid sold 3
billion euros of 5-year bonds. Rome sold 6 billion euros of 5-
and 15-year debt.
European mining shares were among the top decliners as key
base metals prices fell. Copper slipped after two days of
strong gains on worries about waning demand in top metals
consumer China, which is approaching its new year holidays.
The STOXX Europe 600 Basic Materials index <.SXPP> fell
1.89 percent. London-listed Chilean-based copper mining
company Antofagasta <ANTO.L> dropped 2.04 percent.
In the debt markets, euro-zone interest-rate futures fell
while two-year German bond yields rose to their highest levels
since December as traders raised bets on a future interest-
rate hike after Trichet's hawkish comments on inflation.
The two-year German Schatz yield rose to a 3-1/2-week high
of 1.114 percent after Trichet said the bank had not
precommitted not to move rates and added that they had hiked
rates in July 2008 as the financial crisis got under way.
[]
"What he said was simply hawkish but his reminder of July
2008 has served to force the market to overcompensate," Credit
Agricole rate strategist Peter Chatwell said.
In the commodities markets, U.S. light sweet crude oil
<CLc1> fell 7 cents, or 0.08 percent, to $91.79 per barrel,
and spot gold prices <XAU=> fell $5.40, or 0.39 percent, to
$1,380.60 an ounce.
(Additional reporting by Jeremy Gaunt, Nigel Davies, Atul
Prakash, Emelia Sithole-Matarise, Ryan Vlastelica, Pedro
Nicolaci da Costa and Paul Carrel; Editing by Jan Paschal)
