OREANDA-NEWS. August 24, 2011. US stocks jumped on Tuesday with Oil&Gas (+4.59%) and Technology as the leaders. S&P 500 index rose by 3.43%, Russell 2000 Index – by 4.87%. EURUSD finished the day near 1.44. VIX closed at 36.27. Despite early pessimism, stocks surged closer to the end of the session on Bernanke Jackson Hole speech expectations. New home sales rose by 0.7% to 298K.

Richmond Fed Activity Index was down to -10 in August, below consensus forecast of -5.

Asian markets were down on Wednesday after Moody’s downgraded Japan. Hang Seng lost 1.28%, Nikkei – was down by 1.07%. S&P/ASX lost 0.14%. Shanghai stock indices closed flat. Kospi declined by 1.11%.

The European stock indices futures were up in the morning - Dow Jones Stoxx 50 futures added 0.89% while Dax futures added 0.96%. S&P futures lost 0.79%.