OREANDA-NEWS. September 30, 2011. US stocks rose on Thursday with Basic Materials (+2.65%) and Utilities (+1.55%) as the leading sectors. S&P 500 index was up by 0.81%, Russell 2000 Index added 1.66%. VIX was down by 5.45% to 38.84. Economic data were soft. 2Q GDP was revised up to 1.3% as Personal spending estimates were lifted to +0.7%.

Initial jobless claims fell 391K, below consensus of 421K. Pending home sales was down by 1.2% vs consensus of -2%.

EURUSD closed near 1.36.

Asian stocks were mostly flat on Friday. S&P/ASX was up by 0.01%. Korean Kospi added 0.02%. Shanghai stock indices were down on average by 0.5%. Hang Seng lost 1.86%.

The European stock indices futures slightly fell in the morning - Dow Jones Stoxx 50 futures was down by 0.59% while Dax lost 0.46%. S&P futures added 0.83%.

CPI data will be in focus in Europe today.

In the US, personal spending data for August, Chicago PMI, CBOT Consumer Confidence statistics will be in focus.