Wall Street opens higher on Europe hopes

By NBC News wire reports

Stocks opened higher on Friday as Spain worked on reform measures in anticipation of a bailout package and Apple debuted its latest iPhone worldwide.

Shares of Apple rose 0.5 percent in early trading.

Spain is considering freezing pensions and speeding up a planned rise in the retirement age as it races to cut spending and meet conditions of an expected international sovereign aid package, Sources with knowledge of the matter said.

"The problems are very big (in Spain and Europe in general), it's possible this is the beginning of the workout of the situation, it certainly takes some pressure off," said Rick Meckler, president LibertyView Capital Management in New York.

"But you can expect - as it's gone on all year - there will be positive and negative news stories out of Europe until Germany makes some firm decision on its level of commitment."

Minutes after the opening bell, the Dow Jones industrial average?was up 28.42 points, or 0.21 percent, at 13,625.35. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was up 3.74 points, or 0.26 percent, at 1,464.00. The Nasdaq Composite Index?was up 19.09 points, or 0.60 percent, at 3,195.05.

After gaining about 6 percent since the start of August, largely on expectations for new economic stimulus measures by world central banks, the S&P 500 has seen muted action this week. The index has been unable to muster a daily move of more than 0.4 percent in either direction in the wake of the Federal Reserve's latest quantitative easing plan.

There may be increased volatility towards the close Friday due to 'quadruple witching' - the quarterly settlement and expiration of four different types of September equity futures and options contracts. Expiration can lead to greater volume and volatility as players adjust or exercise their derivative positions.

"That has historically been a positive day for the market so you have some people just really looking at that," said Meckler, referring to the quadruple witching.

Minneapolis Fed President Narayana Kocherlakota, who has long argued that pushing too hard to get Americans back to work risks inflation, reversed course and suggested the Fed should keep rates low until the jobless rate drops to 5.5 percent.

Apple's iPhone 5 hits stores around the globe on Friday, giving the consumer giant a boost ahead of the crucial end-of-year holiday season, even as rival Samsung steps up its legal challenge over key technologies.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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Source: http://marketday.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/09/21/14011041-wall-street-opens-higher-on-europe-hopes?lite

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