AlHijjah 15, 1433, Oct 31, 2012, SPA -- World shares and the euro edged up on Wednesday as a storm-hit Wall Street began trading after its two-day closure and investors looked ahead to economic data later in the week, Reuters reported. In early trading the Dow Jones industrial average was up 0.6 percent at 13,187.23 points, while the Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose 0.4 percent to 1,417.75 points. However, with transport into and around New York City limited and wide-scale power outages making it hard for many traders to work from home, volumes were expected to be thin European stocks did manage to add to their solid gains for the month thanks to some good earnings reports, though uncertainty over the reaction on Wall Street to the economic impact of super storm Sandy was also keeping many investors sidelined. The FTSE Eurofirst index of top European shares was up 0.2 percent at 1,107 points, bringing its gains for the year to date to over 10.5 percent after five straight monthly rises. Germany's DAX index gained 0.6 percent, due in part to strong profits by airline Lufthansa, but London's FTSE 100 fell following an 18-percent share price drop for oil and gas firm BG Group after it said it did not expect its production to grow at all next year. In the oil market, the after-effects of Sandy on the U.S. east coast were still being assessed, with reduced fuel demand expected as roads and airports remain shut, even as refineries in the region slowly resumed operations. Brent crude for December delivery was up 30 cents at $109.38 a barrel, while U.S. crude for December rose 57 cents to $86.25, still on track for the biggest monthly loss since May. Trading of oil, natural gas and other commodity futures and options run by the CME Group at the NYMEX world headquarters in New York resumed on Wednesday, but the U.S. Energy Department has delayed its weekly petroleum inventory report by a day to Thursday. Gold inched up 0.6 percent to $1,720 an ounce, but it, too, is on course for its biggest monthly decline since May, at more than 3 percent.
