Business News
Markets on roller-coaster ride amid concerted rate cuts
By Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa Oct 8, 2008, 15:08 GMT
Japanese traders monitor the market at a trading house in Tokyo, Japan, 08 October 2008. EPA/EVERETT KENNEDY BROWN
A concerted rate-cutting move by the central banks of the world's economic heavyweights appeared Wednesday to be meet with a positive, if tentative, response on European exchanges and early gains on Wall Street. But markets and investors were still obviously on a roller- coaster ride much of the time.
The central banks of the United States, Britain, Canada, Switzerland, Sweden and China, as well as the eurozone's European Central Bank, delivered a 50 basis points cut in their lead rates in a bid to ease monetary conditions and shore up market liquidity.
The move came too late to affect markets in Asia, which saw further massive losses in the wake of Wall Street's drop of five per cent, with for example, Japan's leading Nikkei plunging 952.58 points, or 9.38 per cent, to end at 9,203.32.
But a half hour into the new Wall Street session on Wednesday, the Dow Jones index had gained almost 105 points, or 1.1 per cent, to reach 9,552 points.
In Europe, stocks began plunging in the wake of Wall Street's losses Tuesday and the early losses in Asia, but then the rate cut announcement triggered encouraging rebounds on a number of exchanges.
In London, the FTSE 100 Index started out with a 7 per cent plunge, only then to rebound after the rate cut announcement. By lunchtime, the index was up almost 39 points to 4,644 points.
In Paris, the benchmark CAC 40 was on a similar roller-coaster ride. Trading was briefly suspended in the morning when a rush of sell orders sent the index plunging more than 8 per cent. But after the rate cut announcement, shares rebounded strongly - only for a new pessimism to set in. At mid-afternoon, the CAC 40 was down 4.7 per cent to 3,557.33 points.
In Frankfurt, German stocks rallied slightly Wednesday after the interest rate cuts. As of mid-afteroon, the 30-share DAX was running at 5,256 points, down 1.3 per cent from Tuesday's close - but more than 300 points higher after the DAX had initially plunged 8.6 per cent to around 4,900 points.
In Amsterdam, the AEX at mid-afternoon was at 296.15 points. While this was down 4.3 per cent from Tuesday's close, it was well above the early-session five-year low of 280.52 points.
In Madrid, the Ibex-35 was down by 3.1 per cent at 10,535 points at mid-afternoon. But Miguel Blesa, president of the Caja Madrid savings bank, said he expected the rate cuts by central banks to 'take effect' as soon as investors recovered confidence in the markets.
In Italy, the Milan Bourse was volatile, first plunging 7 per cent to drop to a five-year low, only then to recover slightly on the rate cut announcement. At mid-afternoon, the benchmark S&P/Mib index was down about 4.1 per cent at 22,658 points.
In Warsaw, the main WIG20 index was down 1.83 per cent to 2,146 points at mid-afternoon. But this was an improvement after the index had initially plunged by over 4.1 per cent.
In Vienna, the ATX index was off 8.5 per cent at mid-afternoon, with more than half the shares losing over 10 per cent. But the head of Austria's chamber of commerce Christoph Leitl welcomed the lower interest rates. 'Companies urgently need low-priced money for future investments,' he said.
In Stockholm, the OMXS Stockholm 30 benchmark index was down 3.3 per cent in mid-afternoon. The Copenhagen, the OMX Copenhagen 20 Index was down 4.2 per cent while in Helsinki the decline was 1.8 per cent. In Oslo, the main index was down 2.6 per cent with declines for energy group Statoil Hydro and telecommunications group Telenor.
In Prague, the main PX index closed down almost 3.9 per cent at 1,042.6 points, but the figure represented a recovery from much lower readings in the morning trading before the market responded to the rate cut announcement.
In the Baltics region, stock markets were in a contrary mood Wednesday. All three indexes were down, with Tallinn losing 6.80 per cent, Riga 6.05 per cent and Vilnius shedding a whopping 8.19 per cent. The guideline Baltic Benchmark Index (BBI), which includes data from all three exchanges, plunged 8.44 per cent to close at 311.18.
In the Mideast, Arab stock markets dived for the fourth day in a row. However, two of the major regional markets, the Saudi and Kuwaiti stock exchanges, trimmed their losses at a later stage apparently in response to local and global steps taken to stem the turmoil.
The Tadawul All Share Index (TASI) of the Saudi stock exchange, the Arab world's largest bourse, opened at a loss of about 8 per cent but closed at a decline of 1.5 per cent. Kuwait's all-share price index opened at a loss of more than 3 per cent but closed at 1.41 per cent in the red.
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GOLD PRICES
1999: Prices lowest in 20 years after Gordon Brown urged Bank of England to sell half its reserves
These were sold in 17 auctions between 1999 and 2002 for average of $275.6 an ounce
Currently about $900 an ounce
In March it surged through $1,000 mark for first time
that SP4 has been hitting the bing really hard. The paranoia resulting from his drug abuse really shows in his latest post. Yes, EssPee, the whole world is out to get The US. Specifically, the whole world is out to get YOU. You can't run. You can't hide(especially when you pop up on this site all the time). The whole world is against you.
in the last post should have been BONG. But on the other hand, bing works too. That is the sound of another of SP's neurons snapping.
Really dying, folks. Prepare yourselves its gone get worse. I hear Iceland is already on the brink of bankruptcy. It begged Russia for 4 billion dollars in financial aid. The fact that it went to Russia for Christ's sake! Apparently no other west European country or the US for that matter has the money? So sad. Bye bye western (US) capitalism. Helloooooo socialism!
'Markets on roller-coaster ride amid concerted rate cuts'
was clear and lucid, written by someone who at least knew what they were talking about..
SP4 'Silence is Golden'.
I like looking at men. I enjoy sucking and doing the nasty. I loooove being the recipient. I am wearing a g-string right now. No bra, guys...mmmmmm
Hey, I am a cross dressing transsexual. Anybody???????
we know your gay sp4 so what ?
I mean yum yum *wink*wink* btw this is your boy espeeee
..to be gay than have to run up the stairs and watch your 300lb momma service those extra african-american stepdaddies you guys havein your houses every day.
At least they have daddies and step daddies and 300 pound mammas. SP4 has a pig porker for a daddy and a painted pig for a mommy. No wonder he's gay. He is so mixed up that he seeks solace in drug abuse resulting in brain damage and a further diminishing of self esteem. That is why he is such and angry person who lashes out at strangers. Poor Esspee, too stupid to know when to shut the f*ck up and crawl back into that hole he calls home. That hole being Bush's anal orifice.
i think you made sp4 cry big tears .
How do you know you're the real one? Your brain has been splattered by years of drug abuse, so how would you know anything about what or who is real?
These comments are plunging like the world economy.
It is only the western-style capitalist markets of the world that is experiencing recession. This is because within the last 50 years capital has become too heavily concentrated in the hands of the few, causing a slow decay of the remainder of those societies. It is only now the proverbial beast has reared its ugly head, simply because there comes a point where you can no longer sustain a house of cards by further borrowing on borrowed money. At 10 trillion dollars the U.S. debt does seem a bit on the extreme side, and its unlikely they'll ever be able to pay it all back at the rate they're burning through it. If one of your mates was 10 trillion dollars in debt, it would not be wise to loan them any more, if not for their own good.
This is actually amusing to read. Thank you SP4 for livening up the chat.
Today the gold price rose US$24.70 to US$903.10; the silver price jumped 39.2 cents to $11.717.
STOCKS continued to drop today, down another 126 points to close at 9,321. Dollar kept dropping, too, to 80.818, down 22 basis points.
The gold price has now reached its last high around $905. Brace yourself -- and keep braced -- for any sudden drops in gold. Volatility rules, but the trend is up. If gold makes it through $905 on this try, next barrier is $928. The big test comes, however, at the July high, US$977. Once the gold price passes US$977, it will blow the ears off everybody watching.
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SP4: Yeah!Oct 8th, 2008 - 18:44:35
The whole world MUST coordinate their efforts from this moment forward to 'engineer' the economic collapse of the 'west.'
The whole world must ignore the IMF and the World Bank not to mention the G7.
The whole world must dump their dollar and euro holdings in exchange for gold.
The oil and gas producing countries must refuse to ship to 'western' countries and this must happen during winter time.
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