US, Europe advance

GLOBAL MARKETS

European stocks climbed and US index futures advanced on speculation the global credit debacle will be limited to the financial industry and won't spread to the broader economy.

Accor SA led gains after the world's second-largest hotel company said first-half profit more than doubled. Whitbread Plc rose after the owner of Premier Inn budget hotels said sales increased. Nokia Oyj, which unveiled its new range of music phones today, led technology stocks higher.

"The leisure sector saw good numbers earlier from Accor and Whitbread and this has prompted hopes that the current credit woes being faced by the financial sector will not spread greatly into main street," said Lee Humphreys, head of European sales trading at E*Trade Securities in London.

The Dow Jones Stoxx 600 Index rose 0.3 per cent to 365.71 at 11:43 a.m. in London, paced by travel and leisure companies.

The measure earlier dropped as much as 0.9 per cent. Futures on the US Standard & Poor's 500 Index added 0.4 per cent.

National benchmarks gained in 11 of the 18 western European markets. Germany's DAX lost 0.2 per cent, while France's CAC 40 added 0.1 per cent. The UK's FTSE 100 advanced 0.3 per cent. The Stoxx 50 also rose 0.3 per cent and the Euro Stoxx 50, a measure for the euro region, gained 0.1 per cent.

US stock-index futures advanced as investors speculated Federal Reserve policy makers will lower interest rates at their meeting next month.

Seagate Technology rose in Europe after the world's largest maker of hard-disk drives lifted its sales and profit forecasts for this quarter. Amgen Inc gained as a US judge ruled that Roche Holding AG's new anemia drug infringes an Amgen patent.

The central bank on August 17 acknowledged the increasing risk to economic growth in the wake of subprime mortgage defaults, when it unexpectedly reduced the rate it charges banks.

Standard & Poor's 500 Index futures expiring in September added 6.2 to 1,444.5 as of 11:53 a.m. in London. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures climbed 54 to 13,149. Nasdaq-100 Index futures advanced 12.25 to 1,920.

Traders see a 64 per cent chance the central bank will lower its benchmark by a quarter percentage point to 5 per cent at its September 18 meeting, futures contracts indicate. The odds of a half-point reduction are 36 per cent.