Market

Global stocks rallied on Friday and oil and gold marched higher while the dollar fell after a solid but not blow-out U.S. monthly jobs report made investors less worried that the U.S. Federal Reserve would rein in monetary stimulus soon. WASHINGTON: Global stocks rallied on Friday and closed near all-time highs, and oil and gold rose while the dollar dropped after U.S. jobs data was strong but not as robust as expected, easing investor worries that the Federal Reserve would soon rein in monetary stimulus. U.S. employers increased hiring in May and raised wages. But the nonfarm payrolls increase of 559,000 jobs landed below the 650,000 forecast of economists polled by Reuters. The pan-European STOXX 600 index rose 0.39per cent after hitting a record high this week. MSCI's all-country...

Israel has established rules to open up the Tel Aviv stock market for special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs), aiming to join in a boom in these investment vehicles which have raised billions of dollars in the United States. TEL AVIV: Israel has established rules to open up the Tel Aviv stock market for special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs), aiming to join in a boom in these investment vehicles which have raised billions of dollars in the United States. A SPAC is a shell company that raises money via an initial public offering, which is then used to buy a private firm. The company can then become publicly listed via the merger, providing an alternative to a traditional IPO. Global SPAC volumes hit US$286 billion in the first four months of this year, versus US$163 bill...

LONDON: Global bets worth billions of dollars could be at risk as amateur share traders challenge the bearish positions of influential funds, inflating stock valuations and leaving the professionals looking at potentially hefty losses. Gone are the days when bruised retail investors fled after prominent hedge funds bet against a stock - the GameStop effect is rippling across US markets and spreading to Europe. Shares of the 20 small-cap Russell 2000 index companies with the biggest bearish bets against them have risen 60 per cent on average so far this year, easily outperforming the rest of the market, a Reuters analysis of Refinitiv data shows. Similarly, the best performers in Britain this week have been companies such as Pearson and Cineworld, in which investors also have sizeabl...