hi 2mars... things looking a little better for today although all of europe was off... good luck today... you did great yesterday, from what i saw on kims thread...
kathy :)
cme.com
cbs.marketwatch.com
European stocks sink for third day
Street tsunami sinks Asian markets
By Liza Roberts and Bill Clifford,
CBS MarketWatch
Last Update: 6:15 AM ET Jan 5, 2000 ADR Report
NewsWatch
International Indexes
LONDON (CBS.MW) -- European bourses sold off a third day running on Wednesday following big drops in the U.S. and Tokyo as fears of higher interest rates whipped through the markets -- but stocks were bouncing off their lows by noontime.
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Updated:
01/04/2000 4:08:38 PM ET
Frankfurt's Xetra DAX was down 51.85 points to 6,537.24. In Paris, the CAC 40 fell 98.72 points, or 1.7 percent, to 5,574.11. The London FTSE 100 shed 40.60 points to 6,625.50. Britain's Techmark also registered heavy losses, falling 139.16 points to 3,537.20.
Part of the late-morning support came from higher S&P futures -- up 0.5 percent to 1,418. See S&P Futures For London stocks see most active, and for other bourses see world indexes.
Although few market players expect the European Central Bank to raise interest rates when it holds its first policy meeting of the year later this session, many believe a hike is imminent by the end of the first quarter, and predict the bank will make some indication of a tightening bias in its statement.
Wednesday's market tumbles "are interest rate jitters," said Khuram Chaudhry, U.K. strategist at Merrill Lynch in London. With Y2K fears mostly out of the picture, a new focus on rising bond yields and increasingly strong economic data has investors nervous that inflation and interest rates are set to rise here and in the U.S., Chaudhry said. He predicts the London FTSE 100 could head toward the 6,100 level "depending on how quickly news of positive growth and inflation factor into the market."
Still, many economists and strategists told CBS.MarketWatch.com this week's reversal is merely a temporary correction, and not an indication of a longer-lasting trend. "My forecast for the FTSE 100 for the year is 6,750 and I feel confident with that," said Richard Jeffrey, economist at CCF Charterhouse in London. Jeffrey predicts markets will be volatile until the interest rate picture flattens out.
"This is just the froth blowing off," said George Hodgson, European strategist at ABN Amro in London. ""It's fairly substantial, unless it's put in the context of the dramatic rises we saw in November and December." Gary Dugan of JP Morgan agreed: "There was a bit of over-exuberance in the last part of the year," he said.
What goes up, must come down
Technology shares were taking the brunt of Wednesday's punishment. Shares in British online auction house QXL.com PLC (QXLC: news, msgs) fell 207.50 pence, or 15.4 percent, to 1,138. And Jellyworks PLC shares lost 4.50 pence, or 3.7 percent, to 117.
In Paris, STMicroelectronics SA (STM: news, msgs), the French chip-maker, dropped 8.10 euros, or 5.5 percent, to 138. In Germany, software maker SAP AG fell 36.30 euros, or 6.3 percent, to 543.7. Goldman, Sachs said Wednesday it's cutting its fourth quarter earnings forecast for SAP from 1.22 euros per share to 0.68 to reflect the impact of the company's stock appreciation rights program.
Telecommunications shares also headed lower. British Telecommunications PLC (BTY: news, msgs) fell 27 pence, or 1.9 percent, to 1,396. Cable & Wireless PLC (CWP: news, msgs) lost 41 pence, or 3.9 percent, to 996.50. And Deutsche Telekom AG (DT: news, msgs) fell 2.2 euros, or 3.3 percent, to 64.80.
Many bank stock investors also sold their shares. Barclays PLC (BCS: news, msgs) shed 17 pence, or just under 1 percent, to 1,653. HSBC Holdings PLC (HBC: news, msgs) fell 29.50 pence, or 3.6 percent, to 793.
Currencies
The euro was up 0.9 percent in London at $1.0385 ahead of the ECB meeting. Against the yen, the euro was also 0.9 percent higher at 107.24. The single European currency was supported, in part, by German jobless numbers which fell a "much sharper-than-forecast" 68,000, said Marian Bell, head of research at the Royal Bank of Scotland in London.
The dollar, meantime, was steady against the Japanese currency, at 103.30.
But the greenback didn't fare so well against sterling: the pound added 0.9 percent to $1.6430. See currencies. For commodities, see current commodity prices.
U.S. markets Tuesday
In the U.S., blue-chip and tech issues plunged Tuesday, succumbing to a vicious bout of profit-taking as concerns on the interest rate front enveloped the market. The Nasdaq suffered its largest point drop in history.
Markets remain extremely concerned about future Fed rate hikes, which stock market participants managed to brush off in November and December as window dressing drove many technology stocks through the roof.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 359.58 points, or 3.2 percent, to 10,997.93.
The Nasdaq Composite tumbled 229.46 points, or 5.6 percent, to 3,901.69, suffering its worst setback since April 19, 1999, when the tech gauge plummeted 5.6 percent. Tuesday witnessed the Nasdaq's eighth-largest percentage swipe in history. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index fell 3.8 percent.
Street tsunami sinks Asian markets
Asian markets crumbled Wednesday in the wake of Nasdaq's biggest point loss and growing concerns that the next U.S. interest rate hike may be steeper than expected.
Technology stocks in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Thailand led their bourses down. Taiwan was a rare trend-bucker, rising 1.07 percent to close at 8849.47.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng logged its biggest point loss since the territory was hit by the Asian crisis on October 28, 1997. It plummeted 7.18 percent -- down 1226.10 points -- to 15,846.72. It had fallen as much as 8 percent in the morning session.
The slide prompted Hong Kong Financial Secretary Donald Tsang to the stock market was fundamentally strong and liquid. "We understand that it is part of the global adjustments taking place in the stock market," Tsang told reporters.
He said trading was orderly with "no sign of any panic at all," adding that the adjustment was expected after a period of sustained growth in the market.
Underweighting Hong Kong
But Morgan Stanley Dean Witter saw fit Wednesday to downgrade Hong Kong to "underweight" from "overweight" in its Asia-Pacific model portfolio. The U.S. investment bank's new 12-month target for the Hang Seng: 12,000.
Merrill Lynch's Tokyo strategist Keiko Kondo calls what happened in Japan a return of "healthy paranoia" about inflated equity prices in the tech sector.
Nikkei Average sagged 460.31 points, or 2.42 percent, to end the session at 18,542.55. The Nikkei lost more than four percent at one stage, with technology shares mimicking their U.S. counterparts, which dragged the Nasdaq down 229.46 points, or 5.55 percent, to 3,901.69. The Tokyo benchmark's sharp setback comes one day after it managed to close above 19,000 for the first time since August 21, 1997.
Kondo said the benchmark gauge could fall below 18,000, "but only briefly, because there are basically positive domestic factors to support the market as well as liquidity that will return after Y2K is completely behind us."
South Korea's key index shed 73.03 points, or 6.9 percent, to fall below the 1,000 mark to 986.01. Singapore's Straits Times barometer tumbled more than 6 percent to 2,373.67, down 156.48 points. Thailand was down 5.91 percent to 469.02.
Australia's All Ordinaries followed the trend by slipping 73.20 points, or 2.34 percent, to end the session at 3050.90. The benchmark could just manage to keep above its intraday low of 3,043.60.
India's market lost 165.53 points, or just above 3 percent to 5325.48. New Zealand opened the year's first session by shedding 53.58 points to 2153.11, down 2.43 percent. China's B-share market, however, was up 0.28 percent to 1410.30
In currency trading, the dollar recently bought 103.02 yen, little changed form 103.21 yen in New York late Wednesday. The greenback had slid as low as 101.46 yen the day before, prompting the Bank of Japan to buy dollars to stem yen's further rise.
"I don't think BOJ is intervening today's foreign exchange market," said Yukio Takahashi, a manager in the equity department of Wako Securities.
"As for the stock market, the index is correcting last year's -- and especially yesterday's -- sharp rise," Takahashi said. "Investors now see the high-priced information and technology issues from a critical viewpoint."
Sony (SNE: news, msgs) led the sector down, tanking 3,000 yen, or 9.8 percent, to 27,700.
Fujitsu fell by its daily limit of 500 yen, or 10.57 percent, to 4,230. Hitachi (HIT: news, msgs) fell 115 yen to 1,575.
Internet investor Softbank Corp. lost 16,400 yen or 15.92 percent to 103,000 yen after falling to 93,000 by mid-day break. Shares rose as high as to above 100,000 yen for the first time Tuesday and fell by as much as 25 percent in Wednesday's downdraft.
Information service firm CSK (CSKKY: news, msgs) tumbled 1,620 yen to 14,980.
Telecommunication sector lost ground. NTT (NTT: news, msgs) fell 70,000 yen to 1.72 million and its mobile phone unit NTT DoCoMo (NMCNY: news, msgs) sank 380,000 yen to 3.57 million per a share. KDD was down 250 yen to 14260 after falling to 13,800 at the mid-day session.
Mitsui & Co. (MITSY: news, msgs) gained 37 yen to 770. Japan's largest general trading company confirmed Wednesday that it was in talks with Monex Inc. and DLJdirect SFG Securities Inc. (DIR: news, msgs) to set up Japan's first online stock market. See full story.
Mitsubishi Corp.(MSBHY: news, msgs) lost 14 yen to 798, rival Sumitomo Corp. was up 57 yen to 1,077.
Toyota Motor (TM: news, msgs) edged down 50 yen to 4890 and Honda (HMC: news, msgs) gave up 60 yen to 3770. Nissan (NSANY: news, msgs), however, managed to add 20 yen to 420.
Sega Enterprises (SEGNY: news, msgs) fell 40 yen to 3660 and Nintendo, a popular "Pokemon," added 30 yen to 15,900.
Beverage maker Takara Shuzo zoomed 304 yen, or 16 percent, to 2215 in heavy trade. Investors rushed to buy nation's leading sake maker which recently ventured into the biotechnology business.
Bill Clifford & Mariko Ando report for CBS MarketWatch in Tokyo.
Liza Roberts is a reporter for CBS MarketWatch in London.
The Associated Press contributed to this report. |
