Financial markets worldwide are positive, boosted by China’s massive fiscal stimulus plan, worth US$586 billion.

Beijing plans to boost the Chinese economy through government spending, subsidies, looser credit and tax cuts.

Overseas, the Shanghai composite stock index surged 7.3%, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 3.5% and Japan’s Nikkei closed with a gain of 5.8%.

In Europe, London’s FTSE 100 index was up 2.5%, Germany’s DAX gained 2.7% and France’s CAC-40 was up 3.1%.

Here at home, the Canadian dollar gained US1.04¢ to US85.22¢.

In Canadian earnings news, Nortel Networks Corp. said it is cutting 1,300 more jobs after posting a net loss of US$3.41 billion in the third quarter.

CGI Group Inc. (TSX:GIB.A) reported quarterly earnings from continuing operations of $75.2 million, up by 15.6% from a year ago. Revenue rose 2.8% for the Montreal-headquartered international information technology services provider to ,$929.2 million.

In other corporate news, InterTAN Canada Ltd., the owner of 772 The Source by Circuit City stores, said Monday it was filing for creditor protection after its U.S. parent filed for Chapter 11.

Circuit City Stores Inc. sought creditor protection in United States Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in Richmond.

In U.S. financial news, the U.S. government unveiled a plan to scrap its $123 billion bailout of the insurer and replace it with a new package worth around US$150 billion. Meanwhile, AIG reported a third-quarter net loss of US$24.47 billion compared with year-earlier net income of US$3.09 billion.

In commodities news, light sweet crude oil for December delivery was up US$3.39 at US$64.43 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Gold gained US$17.80 to US$752.00 an ounce.

Another month of unexpected growth in employment helped both Canadian stocks and the loonie post gains on Friday.

The S&P/TSX composite index rose 40.8 points, or 0.43%, to finish the week at 9,596.21.

This gains followed news from Statistics Canada that the Canadian economy added 9,500 jobs in the month of October.



The junior S&P/TSX Venture composite index rose 1.75 points, or 0.19% to end at 921.88.

In New York, stock markets managed solid gains of their own despite much less positive news in employment. The U.S. economy shed nearly a quarter of a million jobs in the month of October.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 248 points, or 2.9% to close at 8,943.81. For the week, the average was down by 4.1%.

The S&P 500 index climbed 26.11 points, or 2.9% to end at 930.99 — a 3.9% drop for the week. The Nasdaq composite index gained 38.7 points, or 2.4%, to 1,647.4, down 4.3% from last Friday’s close.

IE