Stock market fixing:
Nikkei 225 -255.60
-1.96% 12,754.56
Topix -27.60 -2.2% 1 253.12
FTSE -128.50 -2.42% 5,171.90
DAX -118.55 -1.91%
6,081.70
CAC -81.38 -1.96% 4,061.15
Dow -92.65 -0.84%
10,962.54
NASDAQ +2.84 +0.13% 2,215.71
S&P -13.39 -1.09%
1,214.91
10yr Note -0.3600 -0.093%
3.844%
NYMEX Crude Oil -6.44
-4.44% 138.74
Gold +5.00 +0.51% 978.70
Japanese stocks fell the most in a week, led by financial companies, after a rescue
package for U.S.
mortgage lenders renewed concern that credit-market losses will spread and
banks will fail because of a lack of capital.
Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc
fell the most in four months, while Mizuho Financial Group Inc., the third
largest, dropped for the first time in five days. Mazda Motor Corp. extended
its decline in the afternoon as the dollar weakened against the yen and shares
in China, Japan's largest export market,
slumped the most in two weeks.
Sumitomo Realty & Development
Co. led real estate companies lower as troubles among banks heightened
speculation funds will be cut off for property investments. Its shares lost 6.5%.
Mitsubishi Estate Co., the biggest developer by market value, fell 3.7%.
Matsui Securities Co. surged 3.6%
after Nikkei Inc. said it will add the stock to its Nikkei 225 index on July
28. Orix Corp. and SBI Holdings Inc., which brokerages had cited as possible
candidates for addition, both slumped more than 7% after being passed over.
European stocks declined as investors speculated credit-market losses will widen and German
investor confidence fell to a level not seen in 16 years.
UBS AG, the European bank hardest
hit by the U.S.
subprime contagion, and Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc, dropped to the lowest
since at least 1998. Fortis slipped 11% after regulators said they may
investigate whether its management misled shareholders, and a brokerage said
the financial-services company may need more capital. Ciba Holding AG sank the
most in a month after Merrill Lynch & Co. slashed earnings estimates for
the chemical maker on concern higher raw-material costs will hurt profit.
Investor confidence in Germany, Europe's largest economy, dropped to the lowest since the data
was first compiled in December 1991, while inflation in the U.K. accelerated to the fastest
pace in at least 11 years in June, reports showed yesterday.
Allied Irish Banks Plc dropped 6.6%.
Credit Suisse Group AG cut its price estimate on the stock 37% to 9.5 euros.
BT Group Plc fell 4.8% after the U.K.'s
biggest phone company said it will suspend a share buyback program from July
31, while saying it remains committed to its dividend.
Wall Street closed mixed Tuesday on more worries about the financial services
sector fallout, GM news, Bernanke comments.
Wachovia plunged 20% after influential Oppenheimer & Co. analyst Meredith
Whitney downgraded it to "underperform" one day after the stock ended
at a 17-year low. In her note, she said that it won't be able to cut costs fast
enough to counter slumping capital, and that among the major banks it will face
the "greatest reckoning."
The troubled automaker GM said Tuesday it will lay off salaried workers,
suspend its dividend and sell off $4 billion to $7 billion in assets as a means
of getting its business back on track.
In remarks prepared for this semi-annual testimony before Congress, the Fed
chief said that strains from housing and the financial markets will continue to
drag on the economy. Bernanke was testifying before the Senate Banking
Committee.
Economic news: June wholesale
inflation jumped 1.8%, topping economists' forecasts, the government reported,
reflecting spiking fuel and food costs. However, prices excluding volatile food
and energy prices rose less than expected in the month, climbing 0.2% versus
forecasts for a rise of 0.3%.
Meanwhile, wholesale prices over the last 12 months have risen 9.2%, growing at
the fastest pace in 27 years. The July NY Empire State index, a closely-watched
regional manufacturing report, improved to a reading of minus 4.9 from minus 8.7 in the previous month.
Economists thought it would only improve to a reading of minus 8.
