Stocks: Thursday’s review

Nikkei 225 10,652.64 +74.07 +0.70%

Hang Seng 23,354.31 +135.84 +0.59%

S&P/ASX 200 4,722.96 +14.82 +0.31%

Shanghai Composite 2,283.66 +8.32 +0.37%

China Cosco Holdings Co., China’s biggest shipping company, jumped 6.8 percent in Hong Kong.

Mazda Motor Corp. led automakers higher, climbing 10 percent in Tokyo as Bank of America Corp. recommended buying the shares.

European stocks declined from a 22- month high as European Central Bank policy makers kept the benchmark interest rate at a record low.

ECB policy makers meeting in Frankfurt today left the benchmark rate at a record low of 0.75 percent, as predicted by 50 out of 55 economists in a Bloomberg News survey.

The Bank of England also held its interest rate at a record-low 0.5 percent, in line with economists’ predictions.

National benchmark indexes rose in 10 of the 18 western European markets. The U.K.’s FTSE 100 was little changed. France’s CAC 40 retreated 0.4 percent and Germany’s DAX declined 0.2 percent.

Richemont, the world’s biggest luxury jewelry maker, retreated 2.1 percent to 76 Swiss francs after Tiffany said full-year profit excluding some items will be at the lower end of its previous forecast of $3.20 to $3.40 a share.

Nokia surged 11 percent to 3.32 euros. The Finnish mobile- phone maker seeking to reverse falling sales said operating profit at its handset unit, excluding some items, was at a break-even level or as much as 2 percent of sales. In October, the company projected an operating loss for the unit of 6 percent of sales, plus or minus 4 percentage points.

Tesco gained 1.8 percent to 355.4 pence. The U.K.’s biggest grocer reported the strongest sales growth since 2010 as money- off coupons and an enhanced food offering helped spark a revival. U.K. sales at stores open at least a year rose 1.8 percent in the six weeks ended Jan. 5, excluding gasoline and value-added taxes.

MAN SE gained 3.5 percent to 86.94 euros. Volkswagen AG, Europe’s largest carmaker, will offer to buy out the rest of the German truckmaker’s shareholders to take full control of the company.

U.S. stocks advanced, sending the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index to the highest level in five years, amid better-than-estimated Chinese exports.

Data released today by China's trade surplus was pleasantly surprised players: exports and imports rose in December by 14.1% and 6%, respectively, indicating an increase in world demand.

Optimism also said rising prices for Spanish debt securities after the last auction, where the Spanish government has managed to attract more than planned. Note that today the yield on 10-year government bonds fell to their lowest since November 2010 levels, dropping below the 5% mark.

Upward movement could not stop even confounding expectations statistics from the U.S.. The data released today by the number of applications for unemployment benefits. Figure was worse than expected: in the latest reporting week was obtained 371 thousand initial claims for unemployment benefits against average expectations in the market 361 thousand

Later left the data on stocks in the warehouses of wholesale. Figure the results of November rose 0.6%, the average forecast indicated that it will increase by 0.2%. Growth stocks indicates overstocking, which is a negative factor for the growth of GDP.

Most of the components of the index DOW povycilis in price (25 of 30). According to trade shares in the lead Bank of America (BAC, +3.06%). Maximum loss suffered shares Alcoa (AA, -1.21%).

All sectors of the S & P index rose. Maximum growth shows the financial sector (+1.1%).

Shares of jewelry retailer Tiffany showed the strongest decline among the papers of S & P 500, screened by 4.52% after forecasts for 2013 and sales data. Thus, according to the company's expectations, the annual income would be at the lower threshold of the forecast range amid a slowdown in sales in the U.S. and Asian markets during the holidays. As for sales, in November and December sales growth slowed to 4% to $ 992 million of 7% in the same period in 2011.

American automaker Ford doubled the size of the dividend for the quarter to 10 cents, and this news quotes Ford increased by 2.67%.

Quotations U.S. rare earth miner Molycorp resources fell by 22.7% after the company said that revenues and cash flows will be lower this year due to lower commodity prices and a delay in the implementation plan for the mine in California Mountain Pass.

At the close:

Dow 13,471 +80 +0.60%

Nasdaq 3,122 +16 +0.52%