Stocks Open Higher as Euro Meeting Looms

U.S. stocks opened higher on Friday after European finance ministers pushed back a decision about Greece’s next bailout.  The Dow Jones Industrial Average lately rose 76.02 points to 11,509.20. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index climbed 8.48 points to 1,217.59. The Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 13.49 points to 2,620.56.

A decision providing the next payment of aid to Greece under the nation’s 2010 bailout package will be made in October, Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean- Claude Juncker said at a news conference Friday after a meeting of euro-zone finance ministers in Wroclaw, Poland. Juncker, who chairs meetings of the eurogroup of euro-zone finance ministers, said officials recognized renewed efforts by Greece to meet its fiscal targets.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Friday urged euro-zone finance ministers and the European Central Bank to work together to solve the region’s debt crisis and to enhance the power of the region’s rescue fund amid signs officials have yet to overcome divisions over how to proceed.

The two biggest buyers of U.S. Treasury securities kept investing in July during a tense fight over raising the government’s borrowing limit. But overall foreign holdings fell for only the second time in more than two years, a sign that some investors may have been worried about a possible default. The Treasury Department’s monthly report showed that China, the biggest buyer of U.S. Treasury debt, increased its investments for a fourth straight month. Japan, the No. 2 buyer, showed a gain after cutting holdings the previous month.

Oil prices hovered near $89 a barrel on Friday, adjusting to shifts in the dollar’s exchange rate as European leaders continued efforts to get a grip on the continent’s sovereign debt crisis. By early afternoon in Europe, benchmark oil for October delivery was down 42 cents at $88.98 in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

London police say the UBS trader accused of losing the Swiss banking giant $2 billion in rogue trading has been charged with fraud and false accounting. The City of London police department said in a statement that 31-year-old Kweku Adoboli has been charged on Friday with two offenses.


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