Sept. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Stocks rose worldwide, driving the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index higher for a third day, as gains in metals boosted the profit outlook for raw-material companies. Gold climbed above $1,000 an ounce as the dollar fell. Alcoa Inc. and Chevron Corp. advanced more than 1.8 percent as bullion reached an 18-month high, copper added 3 percent and oil surged 2.9 percent. General Electric Co. gained 4.3 percent after JPMorgan Chase & Co. recommended buying the shares. Equities pared their advance as commodities prices pulled back from their highs of the day, while Kraft Foods Inc.’s drop limited the Dow Jones Industrial Average’s rally. The S&P 500 rose 0.4 percent to 1,020.80 at 10:04 a.m. in New York after gaining as much as 1 percent. The Dow average climbed 17.30 points, or 0.2 percent, to 9,458.57. The MSCI World Index of equities in 23 developed nations advanced 0.8 percent after the International Monetary Fund’s Dominique Strauss-Kahn said the crisis phase that toppled Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. in 2008 is “almost certainly behind us.” “This is the best phase of the economic cycle,” a team of Credit Suisse Group AG strategists led by London-based Andrew Garthwaite wrote in a note today. “Many economic and financial variables are back to pre-Lehman levels.” Credit Suisse said that investors should favor stocks over bonds and cash, and forecast gains in equity indexes worldwide ranging from 12 percent for Europe to 23 percent for Japan through mid-2010 as the economy recovers. Goldman Boosts Estimate Metals jumped after Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its forecasts because of “increasing evidence of a stronger-than- anticipated recovery in global industrial activity.” Gold futures rose to the highest price since March 2008, climbing 0.6 percent to $1,002.80 an ounce in New York. Bullion reached an intraday record of $1,033.90 18 months ago and rallying for a ninth straight year. Copper futures advanced 3 percent to $2.9525 a pound in New York, gaining for a fourth straight day. Lead rallied 5.7 percent to the highest price since May 2008 in London. Copper for delivery in three months will surge 21 percent in London through the end of 2010, Goldman Sachs analyst Jeffrey Currie wrote in a report today. Prices of the metal have more than doubled this year. Oil futures rose 2.9 percent to $70 in New York as the weaker dollar increased demand for commodities as a currency hedge. The Dollar Index, which tracks the currency against those of six major U.S. trading partners, fell 1 percent to 77.262. ‘Good Shape’ Ministers from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries meet tomorrow in Vienna to set production targets. Saudi Arabian Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said the market is in “good shape,” with price between $68 and $73 a barrel satisfactory for both consumers and producers. Alcoa rose 2.3 percent to $12.46, while Chevron added 1.9 percent to $70.24 as raw-material and energy stocks in the S&P 500 rallied 1.2 percent and 2.1 percent, respectively. GE climbed 4.3 percent to $14.47. The largest locomotive maker and owner of NBC Universal was raised to “overweight” from “neutral” at JPMorgan, which cited the company’s potential for an “upside surprise.” Kraft Foods Inc. fell 6.5 percent to $26.28. The second- largest food company said it will pursue a takeover of Cadbury Plc after the maker of Trident gum and Dairy Milk chocolate rejected a 10.2 billion-pound ($16.7 billion) bid. Cadbury, which soared 38 percent in London yesterday after Kraft’s announcement, surged 40 percent in the U.S., where markets were closed a day ago because of the Labor Day holiday. The MSCI Emerging Markets Index added 1.6 percent, climbing for a fourth straight day. Russia’s Micex index jumped 3.3 percent as oil rose. Russia is surpassing Saudi Arabia in oil exports for the first time since the Soviet Union’s collapse in 1991. China’s Shanghai Composite Index gained 1.7 percent. The dollar weakened 1.3 percent against the pound after a report showed U.K. manufacturing rose in July by three times as much as economists forecast. The U.S. currency declined 1 percent versus the yen. The euro rose against the dollar after the German government reported an unexpected drop in industrial production in July, while also revising higher output in June. “Near-term prospects do not look particularly encouraging for the dollar,” Derek Halpenny, European head of global currency research at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd. in London, wrote in an e-mailed report. “Gold has just broken through the $1,000 level and this along with the Dollar Index approaching the low recorded in early August may well encourage another wave of speculative dollar selling.” The Group of 20 nations has committed about $12 trillion to resuscitate the global economy, according to the International Monetary Fund, including a package of stimulus measures from the Chinese government of about $586 billion. Figures today showed that China’s passenger-car sales surged a record 90 percent last month as tax cuts and government subsidies spurred demand. Full- year sales of cars, trucks and busses may hit 12 million, the government said last week, enough for China to likely surpass the U.S. as the world’s largest auto market. European borrowers ranging from Fiat SpA and Bayerische Motoren Werke AG to Bank Nederlandse Gemeenten started selling bonds in the busiest day of issuance since the summer vacation lull, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Italy started marketing its issue of 30-year benchmark bonds, its longest- dated security. To contact the reporters on this story: Daniel Hauck in London at dhauck1@bloomberg.net; Jeff Kearns in New York at jkearns3@bloomberg.net.

Source