Bracing for Earnings (24-01-2008)

Wall Street delivered a gut wrenching day yesterday, with volatility reigning supreme as the Dow Jones Industrials Average ended over 600 points higher than their lowest session level, as news of a meeting between New York regulators, bond insurers and their customers helped the market regain confidence in late afternoon.

 In the Asia Pacific region, most markets gained as banks rallied strongly. In Australia Macquarie Bank added over 8%, while the vast majority of Japanese financial issues were staging spectacular recoveries with Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc, adding sharply by 7.5 percent to 964 yen, Sumitomo gaining 6.48% to 657 yen and Mizuho Financials rising by 5.03%. Hong Kong and Mumbai exchanges, still open at the time the Societe Générale news were released, declined before closing.

 European stocks have been rising since early morning trade and continued to advance strongly at 11:00 GMT. Here too, the hope of a viable rescue for troubled bond insurers helped financial stocks, amid the release of the story of Societe Générale losses due to fraudulent trading.

 Around 11:10 GMT, U.S. stock futures were lower following the disappointing outlook from eBay that put pressure on the tech sector and while investors awaited another batch of corporate earnings.

Source: ISFM