Markets on roller-coaster ride amid concerted rate cuts

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. Japanese traders monitor the market at a trading house in Tokyo, Japan, 08 October 2008. EPA/EVERETT KENNEDY BROWN

Japanese traders monitor the market at a trading house in Tokyo, Japan, 08 October 2008. EPA/EVERETT KENNEDY BROWNThe 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.

And Also

Look Back at the Worst Celebrity Breakups

Look Back at the Worst Celebrity Breakups - PopEater
LHC sets new power record after smashing TeV record - The Tech Herald
Woody Allen Gets His First Lady - Cinema Blend
Heidi Klum, Seal Unveil Baby Lou - PopEater
A&E series 'Hoarders' and 'Intervention' premiere Monday, Nov. 30th, preview

Your Talkback on this Story

Latest Headlines in Business

Via BuzzFeed

Older Talkback

page: 1

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.

Business

Business News

Markets on roller-coaster ride amid concerted rate cuts

And Also

Your Talkback on this Story

Similar articles

Latest Headlines in Business

Older Talkback

From Sites we Like

In Monsters and Critics

Corporate

The Fine Print