Yen slides, dollar dips vs euro on US auto bailout hopes
US could vote on rescue plan as early as Wednesday… BoJ’s Shirakawa comments on FX mkt weigh on yen
MSCI world equity index up 0.9 percent at 192.09, Hopes for interest rate cuts cushion economic gloom, Government bonds rally; oil rises from 3-1/2 year low
Governments are hosing down the markets with bailout money. Central banks, meanwhile, are making sure the cost of borrowing is as close to zero as possible. We smell another bubble in the making…and another inevitable crash. Talk about priming the pump for the next bout of excessive exuberance.
The world’s banks and lenders have suffered losses of $2.8 trillion as a result of the credit crisis, according to the Bank of England. The British central bank is calling for “tougher regulation and constraints on lending,” according to The Guardian.
Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and even the mighty Dubai are getting dragged down by the global economic turmoil. “The global financial storm rolled across the Persian Gulf on Sunday,” reports the WSJ, “as Kuwait’s central bank guaranteed bank deposits and cobbled together a hasty bailout for one of the country’s largest banks.”
“Monumental beating” is how MarketWatch is calling it this morning for U.S. stocks.
U.S. stock futures pointed to another monumental beating on Friday – with leading contracts falling as much as rules allow — as a plunge in Asia reignited concerns about the health of the global economy.
S&P 500 futures dropped 60 points to 855.20 and Nasdaq 100 futures fell 85 points to 1,168.50. Dow industrial futures fell 550 points.
All three contracts fell so much that they reached pre-specified limits that can’t be broken until pit trading opens.
Thursday’s session for U.S. stocks was erratic but generally positive, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average closing 172 points higher and the S&P 500 rising 11 points, though the Nasdaq Composite slipped 11 points.
“Investors are taking losses of up to 90% in the $1.2 trillion market for collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) tied to corporate credit,” reports Bloomberg. Much of the losses have been triggered by the failure of Lehman Brothers and Icelandic bank.
With US stocks futures pointing higher and a rally around banks in London trading at the beginning of the new quarter, The Wall Street Journal sees light at the end of the credit-crisis tunnel.
“Stock futures rose as investors opened the books on a new quarter by betting that the latest write-downs from UBS and Deutsche Bank have put most of the worst damage to banks and brokers from the credit crisis out in the open,” says the WSJ.