The "up-to-the-minute Market Data" thread

www.nytimes.com...

GM Bankruptcy is Now "More Probable":

Here's where the news seems to be today?

Japan’s Jobless Rate Jumps to Three-Year High of 4.4% (Update1)
www.bloomberg.com...

Japanese Corporate Bond Risk Jumps as Jobless Rate Climbs to a 3-Year High
www.bloomberg.com...

Yen Falls, Heads for Quarterly Loss on Speculation Japan's Slump to Deepen
www.bloomberg.com...

Japan's Debt Ratio to Surge to 197% of Economy Next Year, OECD Estimates
www.bloomberg.com...

Aso Says Third Stimulus Needed to Prevent Deterioration of Japan's Economy
www.bloomberg.com...

[

DEUTSCHE BANK SECURITIES Assigned 8,500 gold contracts If I am interpreting this correctly, DB wants delivery of $820 million worth of gold. That would be about 29% of registered (available for delivery) COMEX gold. What are they getting ready for???



Could you shed some more info on this? Is this a rather unprecedented move? Is this alarming for those who can interpret these reports? Thanks

Originally posted by elston
DEUTSCHE BANK SECURITIES Assigned 8,500 gold contracts If I am interpreting this correctly, DB wants delivery of $820 million worth of gold. That would be about 29% of registered (available for delivery) COMEX gold. What are they getting ready for???

Could you shed some more info on this? Is this a rather unprecedented move? Is this alarming for those who can interpret these reports? Thanks

I wish I could shed more light on it, it is rather curious, not a typical order. I could speculate to the end of time, but without insider info, I don't know the motive behind the order, hence the question at the end.

reply to post by redhatty



Does this delivery repot mean that they are taking physical delivery of bars or coins? If that's the case maybe they are just covering their collective AS%$$ in case something happens at the G20. Interesting thing to follow for sure.

GM's TOTAL CONFIDENCE package -

General Motors Unveils Unprecedented Customer Protection Package - "GM Total Confidence"
* Payment protection for first 24 months of ownership... lose your income and we'll make up to nine payments for up to $500 per month
* Finance a new GM vehicle we'll help protect its retail value at trade-in time on your next GM vehicle
* Safety and security of one year of OnStar standard
* Fully backed, 5 year/100,000 mile limited powertrain warranty with roadside assistance and courtesy transportation... provides the best coverage in the industry * GMconfidence.com website launched with program details

More here -

media.gm.com...://image.emerald.gm.com/gmnews/viewmonthlyreleasedetail.do?domain=74&docid=53371

Originally posted by elston
Does this delivery repot mean that they are taking physical delivery of bars or coins? If that's the case maybe they are just covering their collective AS%$$ in case something happens at the G20. Interesting thing to follow for sure.

As I said: If I am interpreting this correctly, DB wants delivery of $820 million worth of gold.

That means the order is requesting delivery of physical gold

Whether or not COMEX can or will fill the request, I have no idea

reply to post by spinkyboo


What they fail to say is that the payment guarantee is backstopped by the US taxpayer

DJ INDUSTR AVERAGE 7,714.77 2:47pm ET 192.75 (2.56%)
S&P 500 INDEX,RTH 809.49 2:47pm ET 21.96 (2.79%)
NASDAQ Composite 1,552.63 2:48pm ET 50.83 (3.38%)
===
Gold $920.97
Oil $49.47
===
Fifth Third Bancorp 2.95 2:37PM ET 0.47 (18.95%) 32,766,571
BK OF AMERICA CP 6.75 2:34PM ET 0.72 (11.94%) 271,552,282
CITIGROUP INC 2.53 2:35PM ET 0.22 (9.52%) 215,689,777
ALCOA INC 7.50 2:36PM ET 0.81 (12.11%) 54,363,539

Yep...Uh Huh...

Recession Hurts Social Security Trust Fund
www.cbsnews.com...

The U.S. recession is wreaking havoc on yet another front: the Social Security trust fund.

With unemployment rising, the payroll tax revenue that finances Social Security benefits for nearly 51 million retirees and other recipients is falling, according to a report from the Congressional Budget Office. As a result, the trust fund's annual surplus is forecast to all but vanish next year -- nearly a decade ahead of schedule -- and deprive the government of billions of dollars it had been counting on to help balance the nation's books.

While the new numbers will not affect payments to current Social Security recipients, experts say, the disappearing surplus could have considerable implications for the government's already grim financial situation.

The Treasury Department has for decades borrowed money from the Social Security trust fund to finance government operations. If it is no longer able to do so, it could be forced to borrow an additional $700 billion over the next decade from China, Japan and other investors. And at some point, perhaps as early as 2017, according to the CBO, the Treasury would have to start repaying the billions it has borrowed from the trust fund over the past 25 years, driving the nation further into debt or forcing Congress to raise taxes.

The new forecast is fueling calls for reform of the Social Security system from conservative analysts, who say it underscores the financial fragility of a system that provides a primary source of income for millions of Americans.

"It suggests we better get working on Social Security and stop burying our heads in the sand," said Sen. Judd Gregg (N.H.), the senior Republican on the Senate Budget Committee. "The Social Security trust fund, though technically in balance, is going to put huge pressures on taxpayers very soon.

More at Link...

[edit on 3/31/2009 by Hx3_1963]

United States 7608.92 86.90 1.16% 16:03
NASDAQ 1528.59 26.79 1.78% 16:04
Rus 2000 422.77 6.80 1.64% 16:03
S&P 500 797.82 10.29 1.31% 16:03
Gold & Silver 134.63 0.72 0.54% 15:49
PreMetals 269.33 0.87 0.32% 16:02
Gold GOX 160.54 1.69 1.06% 16:03
Gold Bugs 325.10 5.32 1.66% 16:03
AMEX Energy 426.75 -2.13 -0.50% 16:03
NYSE Energy 8433.87 14.64 0.17% 16:03
Oil Services 123.80 -2.43 -1.93% 15:49
AMEX Oil 851.07 2.25 0.27% 16:03
PHLX Semi. 230.88 1.43 0.62% 15:49
NASDAQ Fin. 1617.97 76.46 4.96% 16:04
NYSE Finance 2868.42 145.42 5.34% 16:04
NBI 682.81 0.84 0.12% 16:04
AMEX BioTec 640.76 2.28 0.36% 16:04
PHLX Drug 144.83 1.70 1.19% 15:49
Canada 8692.88 96.66 1.12% 16:04
Brazil 40899.27 246.14 0.60% 16:49
Mexico 19739.04 208.89 1.07% 14:32
Argentina 1135.79 12.51 1.11% 16:32
Chile 2491.01 -3.06 -0.12% 16:52
Peru 9214.58 327.29 3.68% 14:37
Colombia 8022.97 94.95 1.20% 13:00
Venezuela 43674.30 0.00 0.00% 15:00
Bermuda 2382.59 0.00 0.00% 03/30
Jamaica 79022.64 -78.98 -0.10% 13:57
===
Russia 689.63 6.72 0.98% 03/31
London 3926.14 163.23 4.34% 16:35
Paris 2807.34 88.00 3.24% 18:13
Frankfurt 4084.76 95.53 2.40% 19:42
Turkey 25764.83 621.22 2.47% 17:07
Hungary 11071.85 178.47 1.64% 16:36
Austria 1696.62 76.08 4.70% 17:36
Poland 24036.12 56.04 0.23% 16:40
Czech 749.70 4.60 0.62% 17:40
Sweden 653.04 19.96 3.15% 17:45
Finland 4601.24 99.70 2.21% 18:31
Norway 203.72 4.96 2.50% 17:25
Greece 1684.37 54.69 3.36% 17:19
Italy 12855.00 435.00 3.50% 17:51
Luxembourg 883.36 12.78 1.47% 17:40
Netherlands 216.98 5.87 2.78% 18:08
Iceland 217.44 2.12 0.99% 16:40
Denmark 228.36 0.46 0.20% 17:21
Switzerland 4927.43 181.67 3.83% 17:31
Spain 820.67 22.54 2.82% 17:49
Portugal 2081.83 43.86 2.15% 17:08
Ireland 2193.95 64.60 3.03% 17:10
Israel 728.35 6.83 0.95% 15:29
Egypt 400.65 -4.51 -1.11% 14:29
S. Africa 18441.62 433.12 2.40% 17:00
Morocco 21736.62 -305.33 -1.39% 03/31
Jordan 2708.15 -1.62 -0.06% 13:59
UAE Dubai 1568.46 -9.93 -0.63% 13:58

Coming soon to a company YOU work for...
Beyond AIG: A bill to let Big Government set your salary

It was nearly two weeks ago that the House of Representatives, acting in a near-frenzy after the disclosure of bonuses paid to executives of AIG, passed a bill that would impose a 90 percent retroactive tax on those bonuses. Despite the overwhelming 328-93 vote, support for the measure began to collapse almost immediately. Within days, the Obama White House backed away from it, as did the Senate Democratic leadership. The bill stalled, and the populist storm that spawned it seemed to pass.

But now, in a little-noticed move, the House Financial Services Committee, led by chairman Barney Frank, has approved a measure that would, in some key ways, go beyond the most draconian features of the original AIG bill. The new legislation, the "Pay for Performance Act of 2009," would impose government controls on the pay of all employees -- not just top executives -- of companies that have received a capital investment from the U.S. government. It would, like the tax measure, be retroactive, changing the terms of compensation agreements already in place. And it would give Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner extraordinary power to determine the pay of thousands of employees of American companies.

The purpose of the legislation is to "prohibit unreasonable and excessive compensation and compensation not based on performance standards," according to the bill's language. That includes regular pay, bonuses -- everything -- paid to employees of companies in whom the government has a capital stake, including those that have received funds through the Troubled Assets Relief Program, or TARP, as well as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

The measure is not limited just to those firms that received the largest sums of money, or just to the top 25 or 50 executives of those companies. It applies to all employees of all companies involved, for as long as the government is invested. And it would not only apply going forward, but also retroactively to existing contracts and pay arrangements of institutions that have already received funds.

In addition, the bill gives Geithner the authority to decide what pay is "unreasonable" or "excessive." And it directs the Treasury Department to come up with a method to evaluate "the performance of the individual executive or employee to whom the payment relates."

The bill passed the Financial Services Committee last week, 38 to 22, on a nearly party-line vote. (All Democrats voted for it, and all Republicans, with the exception of Reps. Ed Royce of California and Walter Jones of North Carolina, voted against it.)

More at link

Seriously now - who has a nice privately owned Island I can move to - I have skillz!!!

Microcaps are bubbling.
They will do that when people are looking to take fast gains out of big board stocks and pump the little stocks.
We will have to wait and see if the little pump will return the favor to the big pump in May.

reply to post by THX-1138


okay - pretty sure I understand ya, but many that follow this thread won't so, can you post some links to support that statement - help the learners along :-)

Lookie what I found

The FED's Game Plan (PDF)

[edit on 3/31/09 by redhatty]

Originally posted by redhatty

Originally posted by elston
Does this delivery repot mean that they are taking physical delivery of bars or coins? If that's the case maybe they are just covering their collective AS%$$ in case something happens at the G20. Interesting thing to follow for sure.

As I said: If I am interpreting this correctly, DB wants delivery of $820 million worth of gold.

That means the order is requesting delivery of physical gold

Whether or not COMEX can or will fill the request, I have no idea

A little something from Trader Dan to clarify the meaning of this.

April gold experienced some very heavy deliveries and stoppers in its first delivery day today. AS a point of interest, back when there was a great deal of excitement surrounding the delivery process in December of last year, the first day of deliveries totaled an unusually large 8,600 contracts. Well guess what? April in its first day saw an even greater number of deliveries taken at 8,867 contracts stopped or a total of 886,700 ounces of gold. That is no small matter and is quite encouraging. We would need to see another 7,000 contracts or so taken over the rest of the delivery period to really rock the perma shorts’ world. Whether that will occur is anyone’s guess but it would certainly level the playing field at the Comex were the shorts to be served such notice that the longs intend to force the issue. 15,050 contracts remain open in April as of yesterday – if half of them were to stand for delivery things would indeed heat up. According to the Comex stats, there are 2.94 million ounces of registered gold in their approved warehouses.

www.jsmineset.com...

Moody's may cut BofA sponsored covered bonds
www.reuters.com...

Fed to undertake $37.5 bln TSLF auction on Weds
www.reuters.com...

UPDATE 2-US SEC's head of trading & markets leaving
www.reuters.com...

CapGen Sues LPs for Defaulting on Fund Commitments
feedproxy.google.com...

Mall partly owned by Simon Property defaults on payment
www.reuters.com...

NEW YORK, March 31 (Reuters) - A Long Island mall partly owned and managed by Simon Property Group SPG.N has defaulted on a $124 million balloon mortgage payment after two of the main stores there filed for bankruptcy.

The Mall at the Source in Westbury, New York, defaulted on the payment of the principal on March 11, said a spokesman for Simon, the largest U.S. mall owner and operator.

Simon holds a 25 percent stake in the mall, and would not disclose its partners.

"Right now there's a shortage of refinancing dollars in the market place and yes, they're not going to be alone," said Thomas Fink, senior vice president of Trepp, which tracks the commercial real estate loans. The loan for the Mall at the Source had been securitized as bonds in a commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) trust.

"They're not necessarily going to be forced to surrender the property," he said. "They may negotiate some type of a workout, possibly with the trust."

The default may lead to compare Simon with No. 2 U.S. mall owner General Growth Properties Inc GGP.N, which has said it may file for bankruptcy protection due to its inability to refinance its maturing debt. However, allowing the debt to default may just make business sense for Simon and its partners, Fink said.

"We have seen other operators who were recognized as being astute give up properties that they no longer found value in and just walk away from," he said.

More at Link...

Macy's records $5.1B charge to write down goodwill
news.yahoo.com...

CINCINNATI – Macy's Inc. said Tuesday it will book a hefty $5.1 billion after-tax charge to write down the value of goodwill in 2008. The charge falls within the range of the department store retailer's $4.5 billion to $5.5 billion forecast.

Goodwill represents certain values a company has beyond its physical assets, such as its brand, customers, reputation, etc. The impairment charge, which totals $12.07 per share, is mainly the result of the weak economic environment and the decline in the company's share price, which fell 60 percent in 2008.

Including the one-time item, Macy's 2008 loss totaled $4.8 billion, or $11.40 per share.

Macy's does not expect the charge to affect its business, bank credit agreement or bond indentures.

Department store operators have been among the hardest hit in the retail sector as consumers cut spending, hold off for bargains and trade down to discounters amid the recession.

Macy's shares closed down a penny at $8.90.

NZSE 50 2,575.74 5:43PM ET -14.65 (-0.57%)
===
Gold $918.37

Obama takes step over the line that separates government from private industry
www.latimes.com...

Reporting from Washington -- President Obama's plan to save failing U.S. automakers -- and make them the instruments for creating a cleaner, greener transportation system -- marked a major step across the line that traditionally separates government from private industry.

His announcement Monday of a new position on bailing out Detroit went beyond a desire to be sure tax dollars were not wasted in bailing out struggling companies. It put the Obama administration squarely in the position of adopting a so-called industrial policy, in which government officials, not business executives or the free market, decided what kinds of products a company would make and how it would chart its future.

His automotive task force concluded, for example, that the Chevy Volt, the electric car being developed by General Motors Corp., would be too expensive to survive in the marketplace. It declared that GM was still relying too much on high-margin trucks and SUVs, and that Chrysler's best hope was to merge with a foreign automaker, Fiat.

Judgments like those are usually rendered in corporate boardrooms or announced in quarterly reports. But this time they were coming directly from the White House.

The notion that it was the president, not car company executives, who would pick such a course drew immediate criticism, especially from conservatives.

"When did the president become an expert in strategic corporate management?" said Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.), chairman of the conservative Republican Study Committee. "The federal government is famous for its mismanagement, yet this administration continues to demonstrate its certainty that Washington always knows best."

More at Link...

U.S. companies feel government pressure to save U.S. jobs
www.reuters.com...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. companies increasingly feel political pressure to save U.S. jobs by manufacturing in the United States instead of in low-cost locations like China, according to a quarterly survey.

The survey by AMR Research, a market research firm focused on the global supply chain, found 10 percent of U.S.-based manufacturers consider political pressure the primary reason to manufacture in the United States, up from 4 percent that said so in November.

Part of the shift can be attributed to the recent government stimulus package, which comes with "strings attached" to save or create U.S. jobs, said Noha Tohamy, AMR vice president of research.

"With the Obama Administration, there is more awareness about the need to bring jobs back," she said.

"This is driving some global companies to look at their sourcing strategy, and instead of going for low-cost countries like China, they are starting to either bring jobs back home to the U.S. or closer, to places like Mexico and Brazil."

Tohamy cited the example of Intel Corp, which said last month it would invest $7 billion over two years to build next-generation chip manufacturing plants.

Meanwhile, Mexico, Canada and Brazil stand to benefit from a trend toward "near-shoring," or setting up operations close to the U.S. home market, Tohamy said.

The number of companies planning to increase such activity is five times higher than those expecting a decrease, according to AMR's survey, which includes responses from about 140 companies. The "blind" survey did not identify respondents.

Companies looking at their supply chain have to consider not just the direct cost of operations but also political factors and issues like product safety and failure rates, Tohamy said.

Product quality failures remain among the top risks to the supply chain, but more manufacturers now consider the slump in consumer spending to be their biggest worry.

Thirty-seven percent of respondents identified lower consumer spending in the United States as the top risk. Only 15 percent expect this risk to decrease by next year, according to AMR, which works on supply chain issues with companies like Procter & Gamble Co , Boeing Co, and Cisco Systems Inc..

UPDATE 1-Sealy posts surprise Q1 profit
www.reuters.com...

Gotta have somewhere to keep cash these days...


[edit on 3/31/2009 by Hx3_1963]

NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--U.S. stocks rose in the last session of the quarter and the Dow Jones Industrial Average had its biggest monthly percentage gain since the bottom of the last bear market, as mutual funds loaded up on some of the biggest winners.

Portfolio managers often engage in "window dressing," or buying stocks that make quarter-end statements look good late in a quarter.

"A lot of people were scared to do anything early in the quarter, and then they were looking at their portfolios and thinking, 'Wait, the market's gone up,'" said William Lefkowitz, chief derivatives strategist at vFinance Investments.

International Business Machines, the strongest stock of the Dow's three gainers in the first quarter, added 2.37, or 2.5%, to 96.89, bringing its gain to 15% for the year to date. Intel (Nasdaq), the second-best Dow gainer for the year to date, added 31 cents, or 2.1%, to 15.03 and was up 2.7% during the quarter. Home Depot tacked on 18 cents, or 0.8%, to 23.56, and rose 2.4% on the quarter.

Overall Tuesday, the Dow rose 86.9 points, or 1.2%, to 7608.92, driven by gains in banking stocks and software maker Microsoft. For the month, the Dow rose 7.7%, its biggest monthly gain since October 2002, which turned out to be the start of the last bull market.

"I just hope I don't wake up tomorrow to realize that over the last few weeks the markets were just involved in the longest, cruelest set-up of an April Fool's Day joke ever," said Dan Cook, a market strategist at IG Markets.

For the quarter, however, the Dow fell 13.3%, for the sixth straight quarterly loss, the worst streak since the second quarter of 1970. The Dow had its worst first quarter since 1939.

Tuesday, the broad Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 10.34, or 1.31%, to 797.87. The S&P 500 was up 8.5% for the month, its biggest gain since March 2002, which turned out to be a dead-cat bounce.

The Nasdaq Composite rose 26.79 points, or 1.78%, to 1528.59, and is only off 3.1% for the year to date. IBM's offer for Sun Microsystems, which was the strongest stock on the Nasdaq for the quarter, reflected confidence that demand for software, servers and other tech products would soon stabilize, analysts say.

One stock that had been among the strongest for the quarter until Friday took another hit Tuesday: General Motors fell 76 cents, or 28%, to 1.94 after the auto maker's new chief executive said it had a daunting 60 days ahead to avert bankruptcy.

GM and Citigroup were recently dropped by Dow Jones from its "Global Dow" index.

The Nasdaq comprises technology and consumer stocks, many of them smaller than their peers in the broader indexes, and strength there is a sign of increased risk appetite.

Microsoft (Nasdaq) added 89 cents, or 5.1%, to 18.37. Brokerage Davenport raised its rating on the software maker to buy, saying research and comments from Michael Dell suggested demand for personal computers is picking up in the U.S.

Microsoft also recently launched commercials touting the price tag on PCs, which is usually lower than Mac systems made by rival Apple. Still, the company, once accused of being a monopoly, is facing ever growing competition.

Google (Nasdaq) added 5.37, or 1.6%, to 348.06, and is up 13% for the year to date. Hewlett-Packard is considering replacing the Windows operating system with software developed by Google in some mini-personal computers called "netbooks," The Wall Street Journal reported after the bell.

Among banks, Citigroup rose 22 cents, or 9.5%, to 2.53, and has more than doubled since its nadir early in March. Still, Citi was the biggest loser on the Dow for the first quarter, off 62%.

Bank of America added 79 cents, or 13%, to 6.82, and rose 73% during March.

Investors are worried that major banks could be forced to raise more capital if markets for mortgage securities remain under distress, and default rates on corporate and consumer loans keep rising.

Hartford Financial Services tacked on 14 cents, or 1.8%, to 7.85 a day after Moody's Investors Service cut its rating on the life insurer because of investment losses and its variable annuity portfolio.

-By Rob Curran, Dow Jones Newswires; 201-938-5176;

Originally posted by redhatty
reply to post by spinkyboo

 

What they fail to say is that the payment guarantee is backstopped by the US taxpayer

ABSOLUTELY.
Funny how they keep forgetting to say that in SOOOOO many recent cases!
Not so funny actually.

NZSE 50 2,570.443 7:26PM ET -19.951 (-0.77%)

Fed's Move to Lower Mortgage Rates May Backfire On Market
www.cnbc.com...

The Federal Reserve’s latest moves to push down mortgage rates quickly raised expectations about helping the housing recovery, but it may be months before the impact is entirely apparent and the effects may not all be positive, say people in the real estate and housing industries.

First and foremost, there is general skepticism about the how much impact government intervention will have in the marketplace, as well as concern about the potential for unintended consequences.

“It’s wrong to place too much hope on what the Fed would be able to accomplish in pushing rates lower,” says economist Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research. “There’s a limit to what they can realistically do.”

That’s apparent in what some call the inevitable bounce back in rates since the Fed's announcement at the March 19 FOMC meeting that it would increase its planned purchase of GSE and MBS debt as well as finally begin buying longer-term Treasuries.

The yield on the 10-year note went from roughly 3.00 percent down to 2.50 percent, but has slowly climbed back to around 2.75 percent. Thirty-year mortgage rates, which track the 10-year yield, have moved accordingly.

“Rates are historically low, but the expectation is that interest rates should be much lower than they are,” says Manhattan Mortgage Company CEO Melissa Cohn.

more at Link...

Earnings Alert: First Quarter Likely to Disappoint Investors
www.cnbc.com...

Investors who think the recent run-up in stocks is a sign that the market has turned a corner could be in for a rude awakening once first-quarter earnings season starts next week.

While earnings could be modestly better than the previous quarter—and present some buying opportunities for selected companies—market pros warn that stabilization is about the best the market can hope for.

"If investors are expecting a significant improvement in first-quarter earnings to show this is no longer a dead-cat bounce or a short bull run in a bear market, they will be disappointed," says Michael Kresh, president of M.D. Kresh Financial Services in Islandia, N.Y. "What they should be expecting is moderate improvement or trend-changing."

Looking for signs that things aren't getting any worse—and making market plays off that—could be key to maintaining the March rally, which has brought the major indexes closer to breakeven for a turbulent 2009.

Market pros say now is a good time to buy stocks for investors who keep their optimism tempered with economic realities.

"We're getting the kinds of things you would hope to get to justify a rally in the market," says John Buckingham, chief investment officer at Al Frank Asset Management in Laguna Beach, Calif. "The hope is that in the Q1 earnings season, companies are not missing expectations by wide margins. The hope is that executives are going to focus on the long-term opportunities that they can have as opposed to the short-term problems that they're facing."

More at Link...

[edit on 3/31/2009 by Hx3_1963]

Too Bad This is just an April Fool's Joke

Would have been a serious statement - even if the violence would have been bad.

Australia
S&P/ASX 200 INDEX 3,563.50 -18.60 -0.52% 20:07
S&P/ASX 300 INDEX 3,550.70 -19.00 -0.53% 20:07
ALL ORDINARIES INDX 3,515.00 -17.30 -0.49% 20:07

New Zealand
NZSE 50 2,568.959 7:35PM ET -21.435 (-0.83%)
NZX TOP 10 INDEX 742.81 -4.27 -0.57% 19:30
NZX 15 GROSS INDEX 4,766.09 -26.59 -0.55% 19:30
NZX ALL INDEX 647.64 -3.44 -0.53% 19:20

8:02 p.m.
Japan's Topix Index rises 0.8% to 779.76 in opening minutes

8:02 p.m.
Japan's Nikkei up 0.7% at 8,166.04 in early minutes

Japan's tankan business-sentiment index comes in lower than expected
Q1 tankan large non-manufacturers diffusion index minus 31
BOJ's Q1 tankan large manufacturers diffusion index minus 58

California may tap U.S. Treasury, Europe for credit
Lockyer: Trouble getting bank credit may prompt need for federal bond aid
www.marketwatch.com...

[edit on 3/31/2009 by Hx3_1963]