Stocks off to quiet start as oil price surge slows

In an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung newspaper due to be published on Sunday, the head of Bafin, Felix Hufeld, declined to comment specifically on Deutsche Bank, Germany’s biggest bank.

Goldman Sachs’ 1.5 percent increase gave the Dow its biggest boost. Eastern time. That almost erased its 195-point loss from a day before.

“Our efforts to infuse focus and discipline into our consumer businesses are clearly enabling us to expand our margins as we build a higher quality revenue base, improve efficiency, and deliver stronger, more consistent performance”, Sean Connolly, chief executive officer of ConAgra Foods, said in a statement.

In other energy trading, wholesale gasoline fell 1 cent to $1.47 a gallon.

Bucking the broader market trend was energy giant Woodside Petroleum, which was up nine cents to $28.54 on the back of higher oil prices following OPEC’s recent decision to cut oil production.

Other drug companies traded lower as investors worry that the government will take action to rein in drug price increases.

After Thursday’s report hedge funds were pulling collateral from the bank on liquidity concerns and indications that the bank’s balance sheet was vulnerable, this was exactly what bank bulls wanted to hear. Copper was flat at $2.19 a pound. NXP surged 16.88 per cent.

The S&P 500 Index (NYSEARCA:SPY) rallied 0.8%, with the majority of its 11 sectors reporting gains of 1% or more.

The local prices changed twice on Friday for a net gain of 100 baht from the previous day.

Bond prices sank. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 1.60 percent from 1.56 percent.

South Korea’s KOSPI fell 1.2 percent, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index lost 0.7 percent and Singapore’s Straits Times Index dropped 1 percent.

The technology index was up 0.43 percent, helped by Apple’s 0.7 percent rise. Viacom rose 99 cents, or 2.7 percent, to $37.54 and CBS rose 66 cents, or 1.2 percent, to $54.78.

OIL: Benchmark U.S. crude oil rose 41 cents to $48.24 a barrel in NY, and it rose 8 percent over the last three days.

Extended Stay America (STAY.N) was down 3.7 percent after the company priced a secondary offering below the Thursday closing price of its stock. Index heavyweight Rio Tinto edged down 1.2 per cent, while BHP Billiton tumbled 0.7 per cent.

Spot gold was down 0.3% at $1,316.32 per ounce by 2.48pm EDT (1848 GMT).

Among other precious metals, silver was up almost 3% at $19.61 U.S.an ounce.

Bank slide: Royal Bank of Scotland PLC RBS, -2.99% RBS, -3.85% shed 4.3%, Barclays PLC BARC, -3.53% BCS, -3.78% lost 4.2%, and Lloyds Banking Group PLC LLOY, -2.27% LYG, -3.69% slumped 3.2%.

The dollar rose Friday as Deutsche Bank´s woes sparked buying of safer currencies while a United States economy upgrade boosted expectations for a rate hike. The euro fell to $1.1208 from $1.1214.

The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.1 percent, after advancing 0.2 percent in the last session. While the French CAC 40 Index has slumped by 1.1 percent, the U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index and the German DAX Index are down by 0.6 percent and 0.5 percent, respectively.