Stocks Rise for Fourth Day as Gold Exceeds $1,000, Dollar Falls

Stocks rose for a fourth day as higher metals and computer-memory prices boosted the earnings outlook for raw-material and technology companies. Gold climbed above $1,000 an ounce for the first time in six months.

The MSCI World Index of 23 developed countries advanced 0.8 percent at 11:17 a.m. in London. Futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rallied 1.1 percent after U.S. markets were closed for a holiday yesterday. Silver jumped to a 13-month high, copper gained for a fourth day and crude oil rallied. The dollar fell against all but one of the 16 most-traded currencies tracked by Bloomberg.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its forecasts today for metals because of “increasing evidence of a stronger-than- anticipated recovery in global industrial activity.” International Monetary Fund Managing Director Dominique Strauss- Kahn told the Il Sole 24 Ore newspaper that the crisis phase that toppled Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. in September 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.