Monday Moanin’ Markets

This post will be updated throughout the day.
Last Update posted @ 4:15pm Eastern US TimeBanknotes from all around the World donated by...Image via Wikipedia

If you’re reading this before about 5pm Eastern US time, you might want to check back later. I’ll be updating this through the night, with the final update after the NYSE closes Monday afternoon, unless it gets boring.

You can click on the little stock icon beside each of the markets to see the current status.(Sometime during the night these stopped working, but the links work. Hopefully the icons will work again this morning.)

All Ordinaries Fall On Opening

Australia’s All Ordinary Index dropped nearly 2% at the opening of trade on Monday, recovering to about a 1.5% loss after a half hour, and then beginning the slide again. Currently (35 minutes into trading) it’s down 1.96% and looks to be gaining some negative momentum. UPDATE: Finished down only 1.6%. Trading was volatile, but the margin of loss was held to the initial drops this morning at the open.

Japan and Korea

I’m sure they’ll appreciate me sticking them together.

In Tokyo, the NIKKEI225 opened at a 26 year low before dragging itself temporarily positive again. They will have a hard time today staying positive… UPDATE: Finished the day setting new lows and losing more than 6%, much of it in a fierce sell-off the last hour of trading.

In Korea, the KOSPI Composite opened lower, then followed the Japanese lead and headed higher. Hopefully they’ll keep their lead. UPDATE: Finished with a slight gain of just under one percent!

Midnight Update

As of midnight here in the eastern US, all the major Asian markets are trading at a loss except the NIKKEI 225 Index, which is showing fierce opposition against declines. In an apparent run on banking stocks, the Japanese government issued statements in an attempt to halt the rout:

A flurry of comments from top lawmakers came as investors dumped banking stocks on expectations they need fresh capital to offset losses in their stock portfolios.

The Nikkei average hit a 26-year low just before Prime Minister Taro Aso said the government will expand its bank bailout scheme and strengthen regulations on short-selling of stocks.

[…]

Underlining concerns about the banks, the economics minister on Sunday call for the country’s bank bailout scheme to be increased several-fold to nearly $110 billon.

“The government will have to do something for banks,” said Koichi Ogawa, chief portfolio manager at Daiwa SB Investments.

“The problem here is that the stock market has fallen, it has nothing to do with derivatives or anything like that. As stocks have dropped, banks are faced with rising paper losses.”

(Well, all I can say is that if it weren’t for the ‘derivatives or anything like that’, none of us would be in this mess.
So… Ogawa-san, you are a little off the mark there at best.)

Leading the general fall is Jakarta Composite, down now by more than 6%,UPDATE: Jakarta holding steady most of the day at around 7% loss, still an hour to go. and Taiwan Weighted which is down more than 5.5%.UPDATE: Finished down 4.65%.

The Hang Seng Index is off by more than 4% and steadily dropping.UPDATE: Finished the day down just over 12%

European Markets Stumble

All the numbers are red, if that’s any indication.

The FTSE 100, a bellweather market for the US, is trading down about 3% at 4am here.

All the other markets are showing declines, many as much as 5-6 percent.

In America

After a see-saw day that looked, for the most part, like it was going to end on a positive note, afternoon selling brought the DJIA to close nearly 2.5% lower. All the other Dow Jones indices closed lower as well.

I’ll be surprised if the sell-off stops there… lots of news coming out this week in addition to the expected Fed rate cut. So far, those cuts have just added fuel to the fire that is this crash.

I am Jon, and that was Monday.

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