Sunday, July 13, 2008

Asian markets trading mixed

Asian stocks are generally up (Mon morning) following the FED/Treasury news. Tokyo & Australia are are a little lower, while others are higher with bank equities doing well. The dollar is stronger sending oil down more than 1. The focus in the pre-trading period in Shanghai was on the FED moves because of their large investments in US securities & they sell more than $300B net yearly to the US. A $1T (that's trillion) of FNM & FRE bonds are held by foreigners (i.e. China among others), these problems are global.

Dow Jones futures are trading up 100 (very high at this hour) & S&P 500 is up 1%. Early in Asian trading, they were debating whether US gov moves to back up FNM & FRE debt plus possibly buy shares was a plus or minus. Either it is seen as demonstrating weakness or adding reassurance to investors. While writing this, they are debating on CNBC-Asia how these moves will be taken (up or down). Congress will have to approve any changes before going on break next month. There is CLEAR recognition in Asia that large financial problems continue, oil is at record levels & gloomy Q2 earnings reports are due starting next week.

Mon should be a fun day here!

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