More Skepticism on U.S. Bailout Plan

123jump.com Staff
24 Sep, 2008
New York City

U.S. lawmakers voiced more skepticism and frustration with the Treasury and the Fed plan to bailout banks. The U.S. lawmakers also passed $25 billion rescue package for the auto industry. AIG fell sharply after it signed punitive loan terms with the Fed.

4:30PM New York, 10:30AM Frankfurt, 6:30AM Sydney[R]– U.S. stocks closed lower after more lawmakers voiced their frustrations with the bailout plan proposed by the U.S. Treasury and the Fed.[/R]

Global Markets

U.S. stocks closed lower after more lawmakers voiced their skepticism and frustration with the $700 billion bailout plan. Several U.S. House representatives expressed their worries that secretary Paulson and chairman Bernanke are rushing the request without the appropriate debate. Several Congressmen said that the Bernanke and Paulson have credibility problems when they say that the current financial crisis is brought because of liquidity issues when it is the excessive risk taken by the greedy lenders that contributed to the crisis.

Congresswoman Brown said that current statue under the FDIC rules are sufficient to deal with any future bank failures. Congressmen are equally concerned that after spending $700 billion to save the failing banks and help improve liquidity in the system there are no assurances that banks will turn around and start lending to common man and small businesses.

In other news, AIG signed $85 billion loan with the Fed that pays interest even when the credit facility is not used and the Fed offered $30 billion of liquidity to Australia, Norway, Sweden and Denmark.

EdF, the French state controlled nuclear utility company agreed to acquire British Energy for £12.5 billion or $23 billion. UK government which holds 36% of the stock welcomed the deal. Separately, UK retail sales declined in September as higher food and energy prices curb consumer spending.

Sumitomo Mitsubishi will invest as much as 100 billion yen or $1 billion in Goldman Sachs after Warren Buffett agreed to invest $5 billion in the recently converted bank. Japan selects the fourth prime minister, Taro Aso in less than two years. Elections may be called in less than a year.

Civilian nuclear deal between the U.S. and India was approved by the U.S. Senate panel and will be put for a vote on the U.S. Senate. The number of mobile telecom users in India cross 300 million after the country adds more than 9 million users in August.

Stocks in Australia rose after financial stocks in the region rose and the benchmark index added 1.2%. The IMF lowered its growth estimate for Australia to 2.7% in the current year. The U.S Federal Reserve offered $10 billion credit swap lines in the U.S. dollar to ease liquidity.

Stocks in HK and Shanghai rose as financial staged a mild rebound after China stepped up purchase of bank stocks. However, inflation and global slowdown worries persisted in China trading. HK reported second quarter balance of payment surplus of HK$10.3 billion. Yili drops 10% for the second day.

North American Markets

Dow Jones Industrial Average decreased 29.00 or 0.27% to a close of 10,825.17, S&P 500 Index closed down 2.35 or 0.20% to 1,185.87, and Nasdaq Composite Index increased 2.35 or 0.11% to close at 2,155.68. In Toronto TSX Composite closed down 19.27 or 0.15% to 12,513.36.

Of the 30 stocks in Dow Jones Industrial Average 13 closed higher and 17 closed lower.

Merck & Company led gainers in Dow Jones Industrial Average with a rise of 2.4% followed by increases in Procter & Gamble of 2.17%, in Microsoft Corp of 1.1%.

Citigroup Inc led decliners in the index with a loss of 5.2% followed by losses in General Motors of 3.5%, in Caterpillar Inc of 2.8%, in Walt Disney Company of 2.4% and in du Pont of 2.2% and in American Express of 2.04%.

Of the stocks in S&P 500 index, 252 increased, 247 declined and one was unchanged. Of the index stocks, 33 rose more than 3% and 47 fell more than 3%.

Lennar Corp led the gainers in the S&P 500 index with a rise of 16.2% followed by gains in Centex Corp of 8.8%, in MGIC Investment Corp of 8.6%, in MEMC Electric Material of 7%, in Harman International of 6.8% and in Micron Technologies of 6.6%.

AIG led decliners in the S&P 500 index with a plunge of 33.80% followed by losses in WaMu Inc of 29.4%, in Genworth Financial of 14.50%, in CIT Group of 11.5%, in Morgan Stanley of 11.5%, in Janus Capital Group of 8.9% and in Cummins Inc of 7.9%.

South American Markets Indexes

Colombia led gainers in the region with a rise of 1.41% followed by increase in Chile of 0.47%, in Brazil of 0.50% and in Venezuela of 0.21%.

Peru led decliners in the region with a fall of 0.5% followed by losses in Mexico of 0.10% and in Argentina of 0.05%.

Europe Markets Review

In London FTSE 100 Index closed lower 40.60 or 0.79% to 5,095.60, in Paris CAC 40 Index decreased 25.28 or 0.61% to close at 4,114.54 and in Frankfurt DAX index lower 15.66 or 0.26% to close at 6,052.87. In Zurich trading SMI decreased 25.19 or 0.37% to close at 6,780.34.

Asian Markets Review

The Nikkei 225 Index in Tokyo closed higher 24.44 or 0.20% to 12,115.03, Hang Seng index in Hong Kong increased 89.14 or 0.47% closed to 18,961.99. CSI 300 index in China higher 15.38 or 0.72% closed to 2,138.85. ASX 200 index in Australia increased 58.40 or 1.19% to close 4,981.90. The KL Composite index in Malaysia higher 2.22 or 0.22% closed to 1,028.40.

The Kospi Index in South Korea increased 14.61 or 0.99% to close at 1,495.98, SET index in Thailand closed lower 12.18 or 2.00% to 620.43 and JSE Index in Indonesia increased 10.45 or 0.56% to 1,883.55. The Sensex index in India increased 122.21 or 0.90% closed to 13,692.52.

Commodities, Metals, and Currencies

Crude oil decreased $1.39 to close at $105.22 a barrel for a front month contract, natural gas decreased 24 cent to $7.69 per mBtu and gasoline futures decreased 0.70 cents to close at 258.80 cents per gallon.

Wheat futures closed down 20.25 cents in Chicago trading and closed at $7.30 a bushel. Sugar increased 0.16 cent to 14.10 cents a pound. Soybean future closed unchanged to $11.87 a bushel.

Gold decreased $4.20 in New York trading to close at $887.00 per ounce, silver closed down $0.07 cents to $13.37 per ounce and copper for the front month delivery decreased 10.30 cent to $3.15 per pound.

Dollar edged higher against euro to $1.4617 and gained against yen to 106.18.

Yields on 10-year U.S. bonds decreased to 3.80% and increased to 4.41% with 30-year of maturities.