Asian markets follow through with gains

Asian markets are following through with gains of 2+%. The laggards are Australia, up over 1%, & Tokyo, up 1%. Shanghai just opened with strong gains following Korea, Taiwan, etc. Oil is up pennies, just above the NY close. Courtesy of CNBC Asia, analysts are already discussing whether the big gains from Wed will hold. We'll see tomorrow.

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!

Markets mostly muddled

Markets are mostly muddled. Dow is down 30, decliners over advancers 3-2 and NAZ down 6. On the economy, housing, inflation, unemployment fronts, etc., things look bleak. Yesterday's 2 big sells in the Dow, GM & Citi, are selling at multi year lows (11 & 17 respectively). CNBC reports that GM's market value of $7B is about equal to that of Mattel (MAT) & ½ that of Avon (AVP). Oil is trading at a new record, 142. There are calls for the price to go to 150, 170, 200, whatever. Consumer confidence fell to a 28 year low of 56.4 for the usual reasons. Merrill Lynch (MER) and American International Group (AIG), a Dow stock, are getting ready to report more ugly write-offs. KB Homes (KBH) posts a larger loss, but nobody seems to care these days. The Alerian MLP index is also down over 2 to 278, looks like it's headed for a test at 262.

Markets are greatly oversold, i.e. the sellers will just give up & shorts will start buying back. A relief rally is to be expected (probably this PM), but the outlook remains dreary. S&P 500 is the most closely watched index and the 1270 line is considered very important. Next week, it could be tested.