Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index saw its biggest one-day gain in a decade and its largest points gain in history on Wednesday when it added 2,332 points, or 10.72 percent, to 24,090.17 on the heels of Tuesday’s surprise interest rate cut from the US Federal Reserve. The big gains came after the index had [...]

Most equities markets in the Asia-Pacific region were lower on Monday as analysts and investor worried about the possibility of recession in the US. Last week, the US Labor Department issued disappointing employment data for December, and reports from the Institute for Supply Management showed that manufacturing had contracted in the month and the [...]

Wall Street closed lower on mixed signals concerning the subprime crisis. While Bears Stearns’ (NYSE: BSC) CFO said that his company will take $1.2 billion in write downs in the fourth quarter, less than had been feared, HSBC (LSE: HSBA; NYSE: HBC; Euronext: HSBC; SEHK: 005) warned that it will have to write down [...]

Wall Street was significantly lower in midday trade on Friday after Wachovia (NYSE: WB) fed concerns about the credit crisis when it said it could write down as much as $1.1 billion just in October. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was 1.18 percent lower to 13,109.48 while the Nasdaq Composite had dropped 2.1 percent [...]

Wall Street was up in early afternoon trade after declines earlier in the day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.17 percent to 13,545.43, while the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.81 percent to 2,747.17. And the S&P 500 was 0.23 percent higher to 1,504.04. In the pharmaceuticals sector, Merck (NYSE: MRK) added $1.21 to [...]

Asia-Pacific region equities markets were mixed on Monday. In Australia, the S&P/ASX200 was 0.74 percent higher to 6,654.3 while the Sydney Ordinaries added 0.75 percent to 6,667.2. South Korea’s Kospi index was up 0.84 percent to 2,012.82. The Taiex index gained 1.04 percent to 8,717.17 in Taiwan, while the Shanghai Composite jumped [...]

Equities markets in London were lower in Friday trade. The FTSE 100 fell 0.3 percent to 6,466.8 while the FTSE 250 was 0.02 percent lower to 11,037.4. Miners were mixed. Lonmin (LSE: LMI) added 7.39 percent to £36.49 on a rise in platinum prices and on the possibility that Xstrata (LSE: XTA) [...]

In Europe, equities markets were higher on the session. The FTSE Eurofirst 300 was 0.65 percent higher to 1,539.28. Frankfurt’s Dax was up 0.45 percent to 7,804.15, while the CAC-40 added 0.87 percent to 5,690.77 and the IBEX jumped 1.59 percent to 14,540.5 in Madrid. Utilities saw gains. In Frankkfurt, RWE [...]

In Europe, equities markets declined on Tuesday as commodities-related shares fell with oil and metals prices. The Eurofirst 300 fell 1.04 percent to 1,529.91. The Dax dropped 0.24 percent to 7,769.44, while the CAC-40 was 0.89 percent lower to 5,641.59 and the IBEX was down 1.3 percent to 14,304.8. The oil sector [...]

Tokyo’s markets were lower in limited trade Friday ahead of another three-day weekend. The Nikkei 225 was down 0.62 percent to 16,312.61, while the Topix index fell 0.94 percent to 1,552.07 and the Mothers market was 0.37 percent lower to 625.93. Exporters were lower as the yen gained value versus the US dollar [...]