Overseas markets and the American dollar are surging on the news of Saddam Hussein’s capture, and Wall Street futures are pointing to big gains on today’s equity markets. However, analysts are also saying the impact of Hussein’s capture will be short-lived if it doesn’t leads to stability in Iraq and lead to lower military costs for the U.S.

There’s some additional good news for Canadian investors this morning. Statistics Canada reports that the composite leading index rose 0.8% in November. That continues a trend of gains of 0.7% in October and 0.8% in September. These were the best three months of growth since early in 2002, says StatsCan. The components related to business spending took the lead in growth. Only one of the ten components declined.

For advisors the good news is that investment goods led the way in business spending in Canada, which posted its largest and most widespread gains in several months. New orders for investment goods rose for the second time in three months, and the 2% advance allowed advisors to recoup a large part of the ground lost earlier this year.

The ratio of shipments to finished goods inventories rose for the first time in 14 months. With demand rising, manufacturers ended five months of trimming the workweek, while employment turned up. Business services drove the upturn in services employment over the last three months.

In Asia, Tokyo’s Nikkei stock average rose 321.11 points, 3.2%, to 10,490.77, on speculation Hussein’s capture could mean the end of violence in Iraq.

In Hong Kong, the profit-takers were out in force and the Hang Seng Index closed down 74.25 points.

In London, at midday, the FTSE 100 index is up 0.7 per, rising 31.7 points to 4,379.3. Frankfurt’s DAX has gained 1.3%, while the Paris CAC-40 has added 1.2%.

Toronto stocks closed higher on Friday. The S&P/TSX composite index rose 23.02 points to finish at 7,979.20. For the week, the benchmark slipped 0.1%.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 34 points to 10,042.16, its highest close since May 24, 2002. The broader S&P 500 index added 2.93 points to 1,074.14, its highest finish since May 28, 2002. The techn-heavy Nasdaq composite Index rose 6.68 points to finish at 1,949.00.

For the week, the Dow rose 1.8% and the S&P 500 gained 1.2%. The Nasdaq ended the week up 0.6%.