OREANDA-NEWS. September 29, 2011. US stocks slightly rose on Tuesday with Basic Materials (+2.0%) and Industrials (+1.63%) as the leaders. S&P 500 index added 1.07%, Russell 2000 Index – 2.02%. VIX was down by 3.36% to 37.71.  Rumors on EFSF extension and hopes that emergency measures will be agreed soon caused shorts to be closed.

S&P Case-Shiller Index was up 0.05% m/m vs consensus of 0.1%.

CBOT Consumer confidence Index declined to 45.4 vs consensus forecast of 46.0.

EURUSD closed near 1.36.

Asian stocks were mostly down on Wednesday reflecting increased pessimism. S&P/ASX was down by 0.89%. Korean Kospi was down by 0.73%. Hang Seng was down by 0.89%. Shanghai stock indices were down on average by 0.8%.

The European stock indices futures rose in the morning - Dow Jones Stoxx 50 futures was up by 0.51% while Dax added 0.41%. S&P futures added 0.17%.

In the US, Durable goods orders for August will be in focus today. Fed Bernanke is to speak at 21:00 GMT.