OREANDA-NEWS. September 16, 2011. US stocks rose on Friday with Financials (+2.53%), Oil&Gas (+1.99%) as the leaders. S&P 500 index rose by 1.72%, Russell 2000 Index – by 1.33%. VIX was down by 7.6% to 31.97. EURUSD found resistance at 1.39 as options expiry approached and worlds financial leaders agreed to coordinate efforts to solve European problems. Statistics were, on average, negative. CPI rose 0.4% m/m and 3.8% y/y, indicating that coming Fed meeting will be a tough battle between “doves” and “hawks” as inflation keeps accelerating.

Philadelphia Manufacturing Index rose to -17.5 from 30.7 as business activity remained sluggish. Empire Manufacturing Index declined to -8.82, below consensus of -4.

Asian markets mostly rose on Friday. Nikkei added 2.25%. S&P/ASX was up by 1.91%. Korean Kospi jumped by 3.72%. Hang Seng increased by 1.87%. Shanghai stock indices were down on average by 0.1%.

The European stock indices futures rose in the morning - Dow Jones Stoxx 50 futures was up by 0.79% while Dax futures was up by 1.22%. S&P futures lost 0.31%.

The Euro-zone Trade balance data, due at 09:00 GMT and US University of Michigan Consumer confidence Index at 14:00 will be in focus today.