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 2,349 [...]

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 dropped [...]

Most Asia-Pacific equities markets were higher on Friday. The main exception were Tokyo’s markets, where the Topix had its worst opening day of the year in history, falling 4.32 percent to 1,411.91. The Nikkei also saw substantial declines, dropping 4.03 percent to 14,691.41, while the Mothers market of small and mid-caps fell 4.67 percent to [...]

European equities markets were up Tuesday as they bounced back from Monday’s declines. The FTSE Eurofirst 300 was up 1.16 percent to 1,479.71. Madrid’s IBEX gained 1.03 percent to 15,700 while the Paris CAC-40 was 1.36 percent higher to 5,506.58 and the Dax added 1.58 percent to 7,630.31. Car and truck makers were higher on [...]

Asia-Pacific equities market retreated Thursday after Wednesday’s substantial gains as investors worried that consumer spending is slowing in the US. A Commerce Department report said that sales in US department stores was 0.5 percent lower in October, while Macy’s (NYSE: M) predicted that same-store sales could decline in the fourth quarter and cut its earnings [...]

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 $3.4 [...]

European markets were mixed again Tuesday, with the Dax again being the major decliner with a drop of 0.38percent to 7,777.56. Otherwise, indices saw gains. The FTSE Eurofirst 300 added 0.27 percent to 1,516.42, while the Paris CAC-40 gained 0.06 percent to 5,538.91 and Madrid’s IBEX was up 0.25 percent to 15,814.8. Airlines saw gains [...]

Europe’s markets saw declines on Thursday as banks were lower. The FTSE Eurofirst 300 dropped 1.55 percent to 1,570.92. The IBEX was down 0.82 percent to 15,759.6 while the Dax dropped 1.73 percent to 7,880.85 and the CAC-40 fell 2 percent to 5,730.92. Banks were at the top of the loser boards on both the [...]

After the Federal Reserve announced that it has cut interest rates by another quarter point to 4.5 percent, New York equities markets were mixed at midafternoon after having traded uniformly higher before the decision was released. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.21 percent on the day so far to 13,821 up again after [...]

Equities markets in the Asia-Pacific region were higher again on Monday, with some indices reaching new records. In India, the Sensex rose above 20,000 for the first time, going as high as 20,024.67 during the session on record buying from investors in Europe and the United States. While the index dropped back below the 20,000 [...]