Today's Victims/Markets/Economy Developments:
• The updated toll at the World Trade Center: 6,453 missing; 276 bodies recovered, 206 of them identified.
• At least 63 countries count their citizens among the World Trade Center missing, including:
— Britain: 250 missing
— Germany: 120-150 missing, four confirmed dead
— India: 91 missing
— Canada: 35-50 missing
— Japan: 24 missing
— Australia: 20 missing, three dead
— Colombia: 20 missing, one dead
— Philippines: 19 missing.
• Wall Street rebounded after one of its worst weeks ever, the Dow closing up 367.84, or 4.5 percent, at 8,603.65 after dropping 1,369.70 last week. The Nasdaq Composite Index rose 75.92, or 5.3 percent, to 1,499.11, while the broader Standard & Poor's 500 index advanced 37.60, or 4 percent, to 1,003.40 — back above the psychologically important 1,000-point level.
• Crain's New York Business estimates the economic costs from the World Trade Center disaster will be more than $40 billion, including $15 billion for medical coverage, lost wages and lower business income, $14 billion for the loss of buildings, equipment and rental income at surviving buildings, $8.5 billion less in city and state government tax receipts and local spending, and the $3.2 billion value of the World Trade Center itself.
• The $15 billion airline bail-out Congress approved last week is just the first installment. Lawmakers this week take up legislation on airport security, and compensation for airline and aviation workers losing their jobs.
• Stocks rallyied on the European markets today, after a mixed performance overnight in Asia.
• Attacks on the U.S., together with fears of a dramatic slowdown in the global economy, create a backdrop of uncommon urgency for OPEC oil ministers meeting this week to review production quotas. OPEC supplies almost 40 percent of the world's oil.
• Gasoline prices have fallen about two cents during the past two weeks. Analyst Trilby Lundberg says, "People are not just canceling air travel, but travel, period."
• Tourism is gradually starting to rebuild on the Las Vegas strip.
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