6:30AM European markets advanced Wednesday on tech and telecom stocks.
European markets were higher on Wednesday. By mid morning, the FTSE 100 in London climbed 0.5% to 6,214.9, Frankfurt Xetra Dax was up 0.5% to 6,419.88, and the CAC 40 in Paris added 0.4% to 5,499.94.

Advancers

Infineon of Germany, the semiconductor maker, gained 3.4% after Qimonda, its US-listed memory chip unit, reported better than expected fourth-quarter results.

STMicroelectronics, Franco-Italian chipmaker, gained 1.7%, while ASML, the Dutch maker of chip-manufacturing equipment, climbed 1.4%.

Ericsson, the Swedish mobile phone equipment group, gained 1.5% after it announced a trio of contract wins, including a $110 million deal to expand the mobile network of AIS of Thailand.

Alstom, the French heavy engineer, gained 3.2% after Morgan Stanley raised its price target on the company following its stronger than expected results on Monday.

Decliners

Euronext, the pan-European stock exchange operator, fell 4% after Deutsche Borse said it was withdrawing its bid, a rival offer to that of NYSE. The German operator said it could have only pursued a deal that was supported by both sides and felt this was no longer possible.

Shares in Deutsche Borse and the London Stock Exchange were hit after a group of international banks unveiled plans for a European trading platform. The shares of the German company fell 2%, while LSE shed 4.7%.

Oil and gold

Crude oil for December delivery gained 21 cents to $58.49 a barrel in electronic trading on the NYME. On London ICE Futures exchange, December Brent crude gained 31 cents to $59.15 a barrel ahead of its expiration later Wednesday.

Gold for immediate delivery rose $1.42, or 0.2%, to $622.30 an ounce in early trading in London. The metal dropped 2% the previous three sessions.

The euro bought $1.2825 in morning European trading, compared with $1.2823 in New York late Tuesday. The British pound slipped to $1.8956 from $1.8971. The dollar rose to 117.84 Japanese yen from 117.54 yen.

5:30AM Gold and silver futures moved down Tuesday on unstable dollar.
The December gold contract ended 50 cents lower at $625.30 a troy ounce. December silver finished 0.05 cents higher at $12.89 an ounce. January platinum settled $30.70 lower at $1,173.20 an ounce and December palladium closed $7.25 lower at $319.50 per ounce. Most-active December copper settled up 1.4 cents at $3.0890 per pound.

December crude oil moved 30 cents lower to $58.28 a barrel. December heating oil settled up 0.32 cent to $1.6632 a gallon. December gasoline advanced 0.78 cent to $1.5448 a gallon while December natural gas settled up 8.3 cents at $7.977 a million British thermal units.

On the New York Board of Trade, speculative buying enabled Arabica coffee futures to post a gain. The December contract settled up 0.65 cent at $1.1580 per pound. Futures on raw sugar in foreign ports for March settled unchanged at 11.67 cents a pound.