Wall Street was up right after the Federal Reserve announced on Wednesday that it was cutting its main interest rate by half a percentage point to 3 percent, but the markets ended the session lower. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.3 percent to 12.442.83 while the Nasdaq Composite was down 0.38 percent to [...]

Equities markets in the Asia-Pacific region were mixed on Wednesday after reports that the economies in both South Korea and Singapore are slowing and on the news that the bombing of an army bus in Colombo, Sri Lanka, had killed four. The Straits Times index was 0.61 percent lower to 3,461.22 in Singapore on [...]

Wall Street was lower in afternoon trade on Tuesday ahead of Wednesday’s decision on interest rates by the Federal Reserve and after the Conference Board reported that consumer confidence was down in October, to its lowest level in two years. More disappointing corporate results did not help matters. The Dow Jones Industrial Average [...]

Europe’s markets saw gains on Thursday. The FTSE Eurofirst 300 was up 1 percent to 1,565.18. Madrid’s IBEX added 1.02 percent to 15,386, while the Dax gained 1.32 percent to 7,932.44 and the Paris CAC-40 jumped 1.51 percent to 5,760.3. Telecommunications utilities did well on the day after France Telecom (Euronext: FTE; [...]

Shares in the Asia-Pacific region were mixed Wednesday. Gainers included Taiwan’s Taiex index, which was 0.8 percent higher to 9,700.07. The Kospi index was up 2.62 percent to 2,014.09 in South Korea, while the Shanghai Composite gained 2.64 percent to 5,552.3. In India, the Sensex was up 2.99 percent to 17,847.04. [...]

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) [...]

Asia-Pacific region equities markets saw gains on Thursday on continuing indications that the US Federal Reserve will see the need to cut interest rates again soon after the Commerce Department there reported that durable goods orders were lower in August. In Australia, the Sydney Ordinaries and the S&P/ASX200 each rose by an identical 0.87 [...]

In Australia on Monday the Sydney Ordinaries added 1.41 percent to 6,461.1 and the S&P/ASX200 was up 1.47 percent to 6,451.5. The gains came on a report that miner BHP Billiton (ASX: BHP; NYSE: BHP; LSE: BLT) will soon say that it has found a large new deposit of gold in South Australia. [...]

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 [...]

Asia-Pacific equities markets were mixed again on Wednesday. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng closed above the 24,000 level for the first time, ending the session 0.77 percent higher to 24,069.17. Other gainers on the day included the Shanghai Composite, which added 0.31 percent to 5,310.72 and the Straits Times index in Singapore, [...]