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Strategies & Market Trends : Market Gems:Stocks w/Strong Earnings and High Tech. Rank -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: simarx who wrote (12844)	8/11/1998 9:30:00 AM
From: PaulB	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 120523

May bring some more bargains : Paul NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street was poised for a heavy sell-off Tuesday after the yen's slump to eight-year lows against the dollar heightened fears of currency devaluations in Asia and sent global equity markets reeling. At 7:40 a.m. EDT, September S&P stock futures were off 16 points on Globex and Dow Jones futures were indicating a more than 100-point slide in blue chips at the open. ''This is kind of a replay of the fall of 1997. The Asia contagion surfaced then and the markets felt it,'' said Prudential Securities analyst Larry Wachtel. ''It has now resurfaced and we are getting clobbered,'' he added. The benchmark 30-year U.S. long bond soared in early trade in a flight to quality from equity markets, pushing the bond yield down to new lows. At 8:06 a.m. EDT the long bond yield was at 5.58 percent, almost matching the Federal Reserve's fed funds target rate of 5.50 percent. The rest of the Treasuries yield curve is already trading below fed funds. European, Asian and emerging markets were all badly battered by the currency turmoil. In Russia, the Reuters real-time composite index was down 12.38 percent at midsession. European markets came off their lows after Indonesian Chief Economy Minister Finandjar Kartasasmita denied newswire reports that Indonesia had defaulted on a sovereign debt repayment. The FTSE 100 index in London was off 3.29 percent at midsession. There was mayhem in Asian markets in the face of the yen's deterioration and fears that China or Hong Kong might devalue their currencies. The dollar rose above 147 yen to its highest level in eight years. Tokyo's Nikkei index lost 219 points, or 1.4 percent. Hong Kong's Hang Sang index fell 3.45 percent to a five-year low. Financial markets have been disappointed at what is perceived as an absence of drastic initiatives by the new Japanese government to stimulate the economy and address the massive bad-loans problem plaguing the banking system. U.S. stock investors worry that the crisis in Asia could spread deflation and recession to the rest of the world and further hit corporate profits. ''We have a crisis overseas,'' said Wachtel. ''It is a cumulative thing. The yen keeps falling against the dollar. The Russian market is falling apart here. The Chinese are trying to bail out their currency, but what if they devalue?'' In the foreign exchange market, dealers were waiting to see if the U.S. and Japanese governments take joint action to shore up the yen by intervening as they did in June. Oil shares were expected to come under further pressure as oil prices hit a fresh 10-year low, beaten down by the specter of a prolonged glut.