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Strategies & Market Trends : Waiting for the big Kahuna -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Haim R. Branisteanu who wrote (27505)	9/12/1998 6:21:00 AM
From: flickerful	Respond to of 94695

south china post staurday september 12, 1998 Gloom depresses stocks JAKE LLOYD-SMITH, SHEEL KOHLI in London and Agencies World equity markets dropped again yesterday amid gathering fears of a global slowdown, uncertainty surrounding the Clinton presidency and signs that recessions across Asia were worsening. Stocks retreated sharply across the region, with Tokyo taking a savage 5.1 per cent fall to close below the 14,000-point level. After the market closed, official figures showed that the economy shrank for a third consecutive quarter in the three months to June. "Japan is in its darkest hour," said the country's chief economic planner Taichi Sakaiya. "This is the first time we have suffered minus growth in three consecutive quarters since the end of World War II." Hong Kong stocks slid 3.46 per cent to 7,578.48 points. The US dollar dropped sharply against the yen - hitting 128.80 - on persistent talk that the Federal Reserve may trim interest rates in an attempt to boost growth. It later rebounded to 130.84 yen. "The lower dollar isn't helping. That's bringing down all of Europe, and it could go lower," Paris-based International Capital Gestion fund manager Jacques-Antoine Bretteil said. In London, the FTSE 100 index closed 18 points down at 5,118.6 but in New York the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 42.73 at 7,658.27 in mid-afternoon. "It's the overlap from Wall Street and Brazil," Dresdner Kleinwort Benson global strategist Albert Edwards said. "Brazil is now losing US$2 billion [in market value] a day . . . it's more of the same." Brazil last night boosted its benchmark interest rate to 49.75 per cent, up 20 percentage points, to stem an outflow of capital. Yesterday's slides came on the back of steep losses in US stock prices on Thursday and indications that Latin American economies were falling under heavy pressure. Brokers said investors were also concerned about the potential fallout for President Bill Clinton from yesterday's release of prosecutor Kenneth Starr's report on the Monica Lewinsky affair.