Asia-Pacific equities markets saw gains, many of them substantial, on Wednesday after the US Federal Reserve decided on Tuesday to cut US interest rates by 0.5 percent to 4.75 percent. The only major exception was the Shanghai Composite, which dropped 0.55 percent to 5,395.26 in China. In Taiwan, the Taiex added 0.3 percent to 8,926.38. [...]

Tokyo’s markets were lower Tuesday as they reopened after Monday’s Respect for the Aged Day holiday. The Nikkei 225 dropped 2.02 percent to 15,801.80, while the Topix index fell 2.19 percent to 1,510.95 and the Mothers market was 2.64 percent lower to 620.42. Banks were lower on continuing fallout from Northern Rock’s (LSE: NRK) problems [...]

London’ equities markets saw substantial declines again on Monday. The FTSE 100 was 1.69 percent lower to 6,182.8 and the FTSE 250 dropped 1.91 percent to 10,745.3. Northern Rock (LSE: NRK) was the biggest decliner on the 100 as it fell 35.45 percent to 282.75p, followed closely by Alliance & Leicester (LSE: AL) with a [...]

Most equities markets in the Asia Pacific region saw gains on Friday. The major exception in Asia was India’s Sensex, which dropped 0.07 percent to 15,603.8. The Shanghai Composite added 0.73 percent to 5,312.18, while the Straits Times index was up 1.02 percent to 3,536.4. The Sydney Ordinaries gained 1.14 percent to 6,315 in Australia, [...]

Asia-Pacific equities markets were mixed Wednesday. Gainers included the Taiex index in Taiwan, which added 0.17 percent to 9,018.12. The Straits Times index gained 0.33 percent to 3,506.09 in Singapore, while the Shanghai Composite was 1.15 percent higher to 5,172.63 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was up 1.49 percent to 24,310.14. On the other hand, [...]

Equities markets in the Asia-Pacific region were mixed on Monday, with losers outnumbering gainers. Many markets were hurt by news that there were fewer jobs in the United States in August as well as on new data showing that Japan’s economy contracted by an annualized rate of 1.2 percent in the second quarter of the [...]

European markets were higher again Friday, helped by talk of a plan to allow the US Federal Housing Authority to guarantee loans for delinquent subprime mortgage holders so that they can refinance their loans at better rates and avoid foreclosure, on the theory that the plan will help relieve chaos in the mortgage marked and [...]

Asia-Pacific equities markets were mixed Tuesday after new data on existing homes sales out of the United States Monday posed new concerns about the state of the US economy. Among those indices seeing gains were the Taiex, which added 0.11 percent to 8,727.55 in Taiwan. India’s Sensex gained 0.52 percent to 14, 919.19, while the [...]

Most equities markets in the Asia-Pacific region were up Thursday, benefiting from a move by Bank of America (NYSE: BAC; TYO: 8648) to buy $2 billion worth convertible preferred stock in Countrywide Financial (NYSE: CFC), which gave investors confidence that the worst of the subprime mortgage chaos could be over. The Shanghai Composite added 1. [...]

Wall Street was lower in early afternoon trade on Monday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was back down below the 13,000 level to trade at 12,993.32, a decline of 0.66 percent, just before 1:30 pm in New York, while the Nasdaq Composite had dropped 0.64 percent to 2,489.1 and the S&P 500 was 0.99 percent [...]