At midday on Wednesday the New York equities markets seemed to have risen above Tuesday’s declines, helped along by comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke that Tuesday’s conditions in global equities markets had done nothing to change his assessment that the US economy could look forward to moderate growth this year. By mid-session, [...]

In London on Wednesday, the FTSE 100 was 1.8 percent lower to 6,171.6. The decline came after yesterday’s 2.3 percent decline and negated all the gains the index has made since the beginning of the year. Meanwhile, the FTSE 250 dropped 0.88 percent to 11,082.90. The 100 lost 114.6 points on the [...]

The Tokyo equities markets were much lower on Wednesday. The Nikkei 225 dropped 515 points, or 2.85 percent, to close at 17,604, while the Topix index fell 3.23 percent to 1,752.74. At one point during the session, every stock listed on the Nikkei was in negative territory, but a few were able to [...]

At midday in New York on Monday, Wall Street had made no progress to speak of. Midway through the session both the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 were steady, at 12,647.40 and 1,452.10 respectively. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq Composite was 0.3 percent lower to 2,508.19.
The chemicals sector was higher on bids [...]

In Tokyo on Monday, both the Nikkei 225 and the Topix index reached multi-year closing highs. The Topix was at a 15-year closing high as it added 0.1 percent to 1,816.97, while the Nikkei gained 0.2 percent to 18,215.35, its highest close in nearly seven years. The small and mid-cap Mothers market, however, [...]

After reaching a six-year high on Monday, the FTSE Eurofirst 300 finished the week more or less exactly where it began, closing at 1,543.71 at the end of Friday’s session. Banks were mixed, as was the automobile manufacturing sector. Insurance was up.
In the insurance sector, Allianz (NYSE: AZ; LSE: ALV) added 5.4 percent [...]

The New York equities markets were lower at midday on Thurdsay. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.5 percent to 12,678.89, while the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.1 percent to 2,515.35 and the S&P 500 was 0.3 percent lower to 1,454.03.
Retailers declined on bad news. Abercrombie & Fitch (NYSE: ANF) dropped 2.1 percent to [...]

Equities markets were higher in London on Thursday as the FTSE 100 added 0.4 percent to 6,380.9 and the FTSE 250 also gained 0.4 percent to 11,584.4.
Miners advanced on the session on higher prices for copper, which were up by around 6 percent on the session. Antofagasta (LSE:ANTO) gained 3.4 percent to 489p, while [...]

In Tokyo on Thursday, the Nikkei 225 closed 1.1 percent higher to 18,108.79, the first time the index has ended a session above the 18,000 level in nearly seven years. The Topix index added 0.9 percent to 1,802.90, while the Mother’s index gained 4 percent to 1,162.25. The gains came as investors reacted [...]

On Wall Street Tuesday the equities markets were a bit higher at midday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average 0.1 percent higher to 12,778.87. The Nasdaq had added 0.4 percent so far on the session to 2,506.20, while the S&P 500 was up 0.2 percent to 1,458.13.
Oil and related sectors were lower after weather [...]