Dow up 101 points
New York: Wall Street was upbeat due to President Bush's re-election. Investors welcomed continuity in Washington and shrugged off higher oil prices.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) closed up 101.32, or 1.01 per cent at 10,137.05. The Standard & Poor's (S&P's) 500 index added 12.64, or 1.12 per cent to 1,143.20.

The Nasdaq composite index rose 19.54, or 0.98 per cent to 2,004.33, its highest close in four months, putting it back in positive range for the year.

Oil prices stayed at $51 a barrel on Thursday as Kuwait delayed an increase in production, prolonging a global shortage of spare supply capacity that has sent prices to record highs.

US light crude eased three cents to $50.85 a barrel.

Indian IT companies fearing an attack on outsourcing from the democrats were also relieved by Bush's victory. The win for Bush, seen as favouring free trade and unopposed to outsourcing, boosted shares of some software services firms and drug makers as opposition to the shipping of work to India was expected to recede.
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Gold at 16-year high
Chicago: Gold prices were at a 16-year high on Friday as the dollar crashed to a record low against the euro.
December delivery gold at the New York Mercantile Exchange's COMEX division settled at $434.30 an ounce, up $3.50. It traded up to $435, the highest price for a benchmark futures month since July 1988.

Gold rallied after initially falling 1 per cent with a surprise 337,000 jump in October.

Currency traders believe the dollar must inevitably decline as long as the United States runs large and growing budget and current account deficits.

The euro rose as high as $1.2950, its highest level against the dollar since the single European unit was adopted at the start of 1999.

Crude oil futures ended nearly a dollar higher at the New York Mercantile Exchange, bouncing back from six-week lows touched earlier in the day and after tumbling more than $2 on Thursday.

NYMEX December crude settled at $49.61 a barrel, up 79 cents.
Prices rallied when traders bought out of short or "sell" positions, wiping out earlier losses that sent prompt crude tumbling to the day's low of $48.30, its lowest price since Sept. 24.
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China, US heading for trade battle
Hong Kong; Trade tensions between the US and China are becoming increasingly strained as the Bush administration is planning more stringent import restrictions on a variety of Chinese textile products.

Beijing is resolutely opposed to the US government's decision to impose these restrictions.

"The Chinese government resolutely opposes the US handling of this matter," ministry spokesperson Chong Quan said in a statement issued on the ministry's website.

China's government and its domestic clothing manufacturers complain that the US willingness to consider such petitions, could severely restrict Chinese textile imports and goes against free trade principles.

The US Commerce Department is considering petitions to limit five new categories of Chinese garment exports, following a decision last week to investigate China's cotton trouser exports.

This is on the back of the US textile lobby which is concerned that a flood of Chinese imports may cost hundreds of thousands of American jobs when the WTO's quotas on global textiles expire at the end of the year.

China said the latest US petitions are aimed at such products as polyester shirts and pants, cotton knit shirts, and men's shirts and underwear. Chong added that the US government's move to accept the petitions will harm American cotton farmers, textile consumers, textile machinery exporters and US investors in China.
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