6:30AM European stocks advance on oil cuts and strong overnight U.S. finish.
European markets were higher by mid-morning on Friday. The U.K. FTSE 100 gained 0.44% at 6,183.30, the German DAX 30 rose 0.4% at 6,204.16, the French CAC 40 advanced 0.5% at 5,384.01.

Advancers

BP and Royal Dutch Shell each advanced 1%, boosted by the unexpected oil production cut by OPEC. Shares of PartyGaming gained 1.6%, following its statement that in the few days since U.S. customers were prevented from accessing the real money sites, average daily gross revenue of the non-U.S. facing business has been 2% below that of the third quarter.

Valeo, a French auto parts maker, also gained after recent slips. Valeo shares jumped 6.8% after it reported that its quarterly profit sank76%. Valeo agreed on a memorandum of understanding to sell its electrical motors and actuators unit for an undisclosed price.

Decliners

Corus Group declined 1.5% as investors were disapponted that it gave its agreement to be bought by Tata Steel for 4.3 billion pounds ($8 billion). Wolfson Microelectronics, a Scottish chipmaker producing chips for the iPod music device of Apple Computer, fell 30% after registering a build-up of inventory in consumer electronics products, leading to a fourth-quarter revenue guidance between $52 million and $57 million.

Oil and gold

Crude oil for November delivery advanced 40 cents to $58.90 a barrel in on the NYME. December Brent crude on London ICE Futures exchange rose 33 cents to $61.20 a barrel.

Gold opened on Friday at a bid price of $600.15 a troy ounce, up from $596.00 late Thursday.

Currencies

The euro was steady against the U.S. dollar Friday, holding onto gains that it made on disappointing U.S. economic data. The euro bought $1.2624 in morning European trading, barely changed from its level of $1.2626 in New York late Thursday. The British pound was unchanged at $1.8777. The dollar rose to 118.32 Japanese yen from 118.15 yen.

5:00AM Gold and silver prices rallied on Thursday, boosted by the oil increase.
The most-active December gold gained $9.90 to end at $602.50 a troy ounce at the NYME. The most-active December silver contract held onto gains and settled 34 cents higher at $12.16 an ounce. January platinum gained $1.70 to finish at $1,094.80 an ounce, while December palladium edged up $4.90 to close at $337.40 an ounce. The most-active December copper contract rose 1.35 cent to end at $3.5095 per pound.

November light, sweet crude oil settled up 85 cents at $58.50 a barrel. November heating oil advanced 2.42 cents to stop at $1.7201 a gallon. November unleaded gasoline moved up 1.91 cents to close at $1.4894 a gallon. November natural gas settled up 32.5 cents at $7.132 a million British thermal units.

On the New York Board of Trade, December Arabica coffee futures closed 0.40 cent lower at $1.0185 a pound, with March down 0.40 cent at $1.0585. Futures on raw sugar in foreign ports for March finished unchanged at 11.59 cents a pound, with May steady at 11.74 cents.