Stocks: Wednesday’s review

Asian stocks fell, with Japanese shares trading lower as the yen strengthened a day after the Bank of Japan opted to hold off on fresh monetary stimulus until next year.

Nikkei 225 10,486.99 -222.94 -2.08%

Hang Seng 23,635.1 -23.89 -0.10%

S&P/ASX 200 4,787.83 +8.75 +0.18%

Shanghai Composite 2,320.91 +5.77 +0.25%

Nissan Motor Co., an automaker that gets about a third of its revenue from North America, dropped 2.8 percent in Tokyo.

LG Household & Health Care Ltd., a maker of household products, slumped 7.5 percent in Seoul after forecasting 2013 operating profit that fell short of expectations.

China Vanke Co., the country’s biggest publicly traded property developer, extended gains toward a record in Shenzhen on plans to move trading of its foreign-currency denominated shares to Hong Kong.

European stocks advanced, after remaining little changed for most of the day, as the U.S. House of Representatives gathered to vote on suspending the country’s debt limit and as results from Novartis to Unilever beat analyst estimates.

In the U.S., representatives in the Republican-led House are voting to pass legislation suspending the government’s $16.4 trillion debt limit until May 19. By postponing a decision on raising the debt ceiling, Republicans plan to focus on other deadlines to seek deeper spending cuts from President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats.

In Europe, Spain’s recession deepened in the last quarter of 2012, a report showed. Gross domestic product shrank for a sixth quarter, contracting 0.6 percent from the previous three months, the Bank of Spain said in an estimate.

National benchmark indexes rose in 11 of the 18 western European markets. The U.K.’s FTSE 100 advanced 0.3 percent, while France’s CAC 40 retreated 0.4 percent. Germany’s DAX added 0.2 percent.

Novartis advanced 4.1 percent to 62.55 Swiss francs, the highest price since August 2008, after saying Chairman Daniel Vasella will step down from the board after 17 years, and Bayer AG’s Joerg Reinhardt will take over as non-executive chairman. Fourth-quarter earnings came in at $1.27 per share, beating projections for $1.25.

Unilever gained 3.1 percent to 2,526 pence in London, the highest price since at least September 1988. The world’s second- biggest consumer-goods company posted fourth-quarter underlying sales growth of 7.8 percent, exceeding the average analyst estimate calling for an increase of 6.2 percent.

SAP AG rose 2.4 percent to 59.20 euros after the biggest maker of business-management software forecast full-year profit will increase at least 12 percent. The company’s cloud, mobile and Hana database businesses are “growing fantastically,” Co- Chief Executive Officer Bill McDermott said in an interview.

U.S. stocks rose on a background of strong quarterly reports of companies manufacturing sector and a successful vote in the U.S. Congress on the issue of the level of government debt.

According to trade in high-tech NASDAQ index closed at its highest level since September 24, the broad market index S & P 500 extended series of enhancements to six sessions, the longest series from December 12. The index of "blue chips» DJIA showed growth-fourth session in a row and the ninth time in 10 sessions, and at the end of trading rose to the highest level since Oct. 31, 2007.

Today, the U.S. Congress on the initiative of the Republicans voted for the bill, which would delay the increase in public debt to 18 May. Representatives of President Obama announced that the White House will not block the bill, as it demonstrates agreement not to use the theme of Republicans debt ceiling in the ongoing negotiations on the budget.

Recall that the U.S. December 31, 2012 exceeded the debt ceiling, which currently stands at $ 16.394 trillion. However, the Ministry of Finance has used its reserves to continue to service the debt.

Positive trend for the DOW and NASDAQ indices provide strong quarterly reports from a number of companies that have been published after the close of yesterday's trading session, ahead of the opening today. Notably the financial data for the quarter from International Business Machines Co. (IBM), McDonald's Corp (MCD) and Google (GOOG).

A number of large American manufacturers today released favorable forecasts for 2013 - as a threat to the fiscal cliff was formally prevented, orders began to increase after a pause occurs at the end of the year. In particular, the manufacturer of aerospace and defense technology conglomerate Textron and United Technologies said the revival of demand for their products at the beginning of this year and announced positive forecasts. Finance Director United Tech said that some recovery of the housing market has had a positive impact on the economy as a whole. In turn, top management Textron said it expects to increase sales of corporate aircraft this year.

DOW index components showed a mixed trend. Following the auction leader was led International Business Machines Corp. (IBM, +4.41%). Maximum loss suffered shares Hewlett-Packard (HPQ, -1.39%).

Sector of the S & P also showed a mixed trend. Better than others due to strong quarterly reports of International Business Machines (IBM) and Google (GOOG) looked tech sector (+0.8%). Located below the other sector and utilities (-0.4%).

Internet search engine operator Google jumped 5.5% after it reported a quarterly profit in excess of projections. Net income rose in the fourth quarter by 6.7% to $ 2.89 billion, or $ 8.62 per share, net of certain items was $ 10.65 per share, and exceeded the average forecast of $ 10.50 per share.

Computer giant International Business Machines (IBM) left in plus of 4.4% as against the favorable quarterly report - minus some articles income rose to $ 6.1 billion, or $ 5.39 per share. While sales declined by 1% to $ 29.3 billion, but were still better than expected on Wall Street.

At the close:

S & P 500 1,495.15 +2.59 +0.17%

NASDAQ 3,154.51 +11.33 +0.36%