China reform plans lift shares, Dow, S&P 500 at new highs

By Herbert Lash

NEW YORK Mon Nov 18, 2013 11:06am EST

1 of 8. An employee of a foreign exchange trading company looks at monitors in Tokyo November 15, 2013.

Credit: Reuters/Toru Hanai

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Global equity markets climbed on Monday, riding economic reform plans in China, while the dollar slipped and benchmark U.S. stock indices rose to record highs, buoyed by the prospect of continued Federal Reserve stimulus.

Chinese shares listed in Hong Kong posted their biggest gain in nearly two years, while the Dow and S&P 500 surged past the psychological barriers of 16,000 and 1,800, respectively. Both U.S. indices pared some gains soon after markets opened.

The safe-haven dollar and Japanese yen fell after China announced its most sweeping economic and social reforms in nearly three decades, boosting investor appetite for higher-yielding currencies such as the Australian and New Zealand dollars.

The growth-linked currencies outperformed as a flood of global liquidity and promises to keep interest rates low continue to weigh on low-yielding currencies such as the dollar and the yen.

"Risk appetite is strong... after details of China's reform prove more dramatic than expected, suggesting a focus on market liberalization and reforms in both the government role and the broader corporate structure," said Camilla Sutton, chief currency strategist at Scotiabank in Toronto.

The China Enterprises Index .HSCE of the top Chinese listings in Hong Kong soared 5.7 percent for its biggest daily gain since December 1, 2011.

Germany's DAX .GDAXI hit a record high as European shares resumed their rally on an improving outlook for the region's economy.

MSCI's all-country world stock index .MIWD00000PUS rose 0.53 percent, while the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index .FTEU3 rose 0.46 percent.

The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI was up 49.70 points, or 0.31 percent, at 16,011.40. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index .SPX was up 1.66 points, or 0.09 percent, at 1,799.84. The Nasdaq Composite Index .IXIC was up 1.98 points, or 0.05 percent, at 3,987.95.

U.S. Treasury debt prices made narrow gains, supported by the prospect of the Fed's continued "easy" monetary policy, but limited by investors' clear preference for riskier assets in light of that accommodation.

The dollar index .DXY, a measure of the greenback against a basket of currencies, slipped 0.24 percent to 80.661.

The euro drew some support after data showed the euro zone's trade surplus grew more than expected in September. The euro was up 0.29 percent at 1.3534.

The Australian dollar rose 0.33 percent to US$0.9399, while the New Zealand dollar gained 0.34 percent to US$0.8369.

Brent crude oil fell toward $108 a barrel after a week of sharp gains ahead of talks between Iran and the West that could lead to an increase in Iranian crude oil exports.

January Brent crude was down 16 cents at $108.34 a barrel, while U.S. crude for December delivery was up 16 cents at $94.00.

Trading in the U.S. Treasury market was comparatively subdued, with the benchmark 10-year Treasury note up 8/32, leaving its yield at 2.6765 percent.

Bund futures rose 15 ticks to 141.78, while 10-year German yields fell to 1.69 percent.

Germany's ZEW business sentiment indicator on Tuesday and the minutes from the Federal Reserve's October policy meeting on Wednesday may provide hints to future monetary policy moves.

(Additional reporting by Marc Jones in London; Editing by Dan Grebler)

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NASA Plans Test of Electronic Nose on International Space Station

International Space Station November 19, 2008

PASADENA, Calif. – NASA astronauts on Space Shuttle Endeavour's STS-126 mission will install an instrument on the International Space Station that can "smell" dangerous chemicals in the air. Designed to help protect crew members' health and safety, the experimental "ENose" will monitor the space station's environment for chemicals such as ammonia, mercury, methanol and formaldehyde.

The ENose fills the long-standing gap between onboard alarms and complex analytical instruments. Air-quality problems have occurred on the International Space Station, space shuttle and Russian Space Station Mir. In most cases, the chemicals were identified only after the crew had been exposed to them, if at all. The ENose, which will run continuously and autonomously, is the first instrument on station that will detect and quantify chemical leaks or spills as they happen.

"The ENose is a 'first-responder' that will alert crew members of possible contaminants in the air and also analyze and quantify targeted changes in cabin environment," said Margaret A. Ryan, the principal investigator of the ENose project at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, or JPL, in Pasadena, Calif. JPL built and manages the device.

Station crew members will unpack the ENose on Dec. 9 to begin the instrument's six-month demonstration in the crew cabin. If the experiment is successful, the ENose might be used in future space missions as part of an automated system to monitor and control astronauts' in-space environments.

"This ENose is a very capable instrument that will increase crew awareness of the state of their air quality," said Carl Walz, an International Space Station astronaut and Director for NASA's Advanced Capabilities Division, which funds the ENose. "Having experienced an air-quality event during my Expedition 4 mission on the space station, I wish I had the information that this ENose will provide future crews. This technology demonstration will provide important information for environmental control and life-support system designers for the future lunar outpost."

Specifically, the shoebox-sized ENose contains an array of 32 sensors that can identify and quantify several organic and inorganic chemical species, including organic solvents and marker chemicals that signal the start of electrical fires. The ENose sensors are polymer films that change their electrical conductivity in response to different chemicals. The pattern of the sensor array's response depends on the particular chemical types present in the air.

The instrument can analyze volatile aerosols and vapors, help monitor the cleanup of chemical spills or leaks, and enable more intensive chemical analysis by collecting raw data and streaming it to a computer at JPL's ENose laboratory. The instrument has a wide range of chemical sensitivity, from fractional parts per million to 10,000 parts per million. For all of its capabilities, the ENose weighs less than nine pounds and requires only 20 watts of power.

The ENose is now in its third generation. The first ENose was tested during a six-day demonstration on the STS-95 shuttle mission in 1998. That prototype could detect 10 compounds but could not analyze data immediately. The second-generation ENose could detect, identify and quantify 21 chemical species. It was extensively ground-tested. The third-generation ENose includes data-analysis software to identify and quantify the release of chemicals within 40 minutes of detection. While it will look for 10 chemical species in this six-month experiment, the new ENose can be trained to detect many others.

For more information about the ENose and the Advanced Environmental Monitoring and Control Project, visit: http://aemc.jpl.nasa.gov/instruments/enose.cfm

For more information about NASA's exploration program, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/exploration

For more information about the International Space Station, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/station

Media contacts: Rhea Borja
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-354-0850
Rhea.R.Borja@jpl.nasa.gov

Grey Hautaluoma/Ashley Edwards
NASA Headquarters, Washington
202-358-0668/1756
grey.hautaluoma-1@nasa.gov
ashley.edwards-1@nasa.gov

2008-218

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