Stock market fixing:
Nikkei -99.95 -0.8% 12,778.71
Topix -9.90 -0.8% 1,229.35
FTSE -34.90 -0.63% 5,470.70
CAC +12.68 +0.29% 4,368.55
DAX +43.57 +0.69% 6,340.52
DOW +26.62 +0.23% 11,412.87
NASDAQ -3.62 -0.15% 2,361.97
S&P 500 +4.67 +0.37% 1,271.51
10yr Note -0.0700 -0.018% 3.784%
NYMEX Crude Oil +1.16 +1.01% 116.27
Gold +2.40 +0.29% 828.10
Japan's stocks dropped the most in a week, led by financial companies, after HSBC Holdings Plc said real estate failures will increase bad loans at regional banks.
Fukuoka Financial Group Inc., Japan's second-largest regional lender by
assets, and Suruga Bank Ltd. slumped after HSBC cut their ratings.
Developer Asahi Homes Co. plunged 28%, its sharpest drop in six years,
after its largest shareholder filed for bankruptcy. Shimamura Co. led
declines by retailers after reporting slower sales.
Fukuoka Financial slumped 4%. Suruga Bank dropped 3.4%. Nomura Holdings
Inc., Japan's largest brokerage, fell 2.1%. Orix Corp., Japan's largest
non-bank financial company, lost 2.7%.
Asahi Homes
plunged 28%, the biggest drop since September 2002. Parent company
Sebon Corp. filed for bankruptcy with debt at 60 times its capital, it
said yesterday after markets shut. Bankruptcies among property
companies more than doubled to 60 in July from a year earlier,
according to Tokyo Shoko Research Ltd.
European stocks rose as
U.S. reports that showed consumer confidence climbed more than forecast
and home sales rebounded overshadowed concern that the U.K. and German
economies are slowing.
UBS AG, the European bank
hardest hit by the subprime contagion, gained 1.5%, and Nokia Oyj, the
world's biggest mobile-phone maker, climbed 2.9%. Alcatel-Lucent SA,
the world's largest supplier of fixed-line phone networks, advanced
4.7% as the euro's drop to a six-month low against the dollar boosted
the value of European companies' overseas sales.
UBS, the biggest Swiss bank, gained 1.5%. Nokia rallied 2.9%.
Earlier today, the Munich-based Ifo institute said its business climate
index declined to 94.8 in August from 97.5 the previous month.
Economists had predicted a drop to 97.2. German consumer confidence
sank to the lowest in more than five years as soaring energy prices
sapped purchasing power and the economic outlook deteriorated, another
report showed today.
Stocks ended mixed on Tuesday after Wall Street moved
in opposition to crude prices for most of the session and a slew of
housing and economic reports left markets at a draw.
One housing report showed home prices tumbled more than 15% in the
second quarter and a government report showed the number of new homes
sold in July was still more than 30% behind the same month last year.
Stocks
did not react strongly to the negative economic reports because "things
Financial news: The FDIC, one of the regulators of the nation's banking
system, published its second quarter reading on the banking industry
and the agency's so-called "problem bank" list grew to 117, up from 90
banks in the first quarter. The number of banks on the "problem list"
has increased since Americans started having trouble paying their
mortgage payments.
The Commerce Department said
sales of new one-family houses were at a seasonally adjusted annual
rate of 515,000 in July, up 2.4% from the June rate of 503,000, which
had been revised lower. While the July reading ticked up from the prior
month, the measure still stands 35.5% below the same month a year ago.
The
Conference Board said that its reading on consumer confidence increased
again in August, after making modest gains in July. The index stood at
56.9, which was higher than the reading of 53 that economists surveyed
by Briefing.com had forecast.
Fed minutes:
The government released the minutes from its meeting on Aug. 5 of the
Federal Open Market Committee when the central bank decided to leave
the key interest rate unchanged at 2%.
