Good morning all, will looks to close short this morning and don't know if we match the 5% rise in US as we sort of factored in yesterday but it depends on if sign the US will continue tonight or just short cover rally. Also the market will have to consider these 2 news articles.
Good luck.
World gripped by 'Great Recession', IMF saysMarch 11, 2009 - 8:44AM The IMF warned on Tuesday the world was gripped by a ''Great Recession'' that could throw millions back into poverty and spark civil unrest, as the United States appealed for joint action by nations against the crisis.
''The global financial crisis, that might now be called the great recession, provides a sobering backdrop to our conference,'' IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn told delegates at an anti-crisis meeting in Tanzania.
''The IMF expects global growth to slow below zero this year, the worst performance in most of our lifetimes,'' he said, urging wealthy Western countries to maintain financial support for low-income nations.
The IMF director also said there was now ''a real risk that millions will be thrown back into poverty'' across the African continent and that the economic crisis raised ''the threat of civil unrest, perhaps even a war''.
The worldwide recession also raised fears in Europe of a sharp erosion in public health as financially strapped patients are forced to defer care.
In Tokyo plummeting exports dragged down the Tokyo stock market to a 26-year low on Tuesday, although global markets later rose on hopes US bank Citigroup will avoid nationalisation. (See report).
''So far, there are no visible signs of a fast recovery. The economies in industrial countries remain weak and the current crisis in Eastern Europe is a further strain,'' said Simon Juncker, an analyst at Germany's Commerzbank.
Germany too reported another sharp fall in export earnings in January, the fourth straight monthly decline.
In Washington, US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke urged world governments to forge a common strategy to regulate the financial system in order to tackle the worst crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s. ''We must have a strategy that regulates the financial system as a whole, in a holistic way, not just its individual components,'' he told the Council on Foreign Relations.
Fightback
Stock markets in most of Asia, Europe and the United States bounced back from big losses on Monday, however, boosted mostly by investors hunting for bargains and an upbeat profit report from US banking giant Citigroup.
Citigroup chief Vikram Pandit said in an internal memo obtained by AFP that the company was seeing a return to profitability in early 2009 after punishing losses last year, although he warned about continued ``market volatility''.
On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq index rocketed 4.3% and 5.9% higher, respectively, in afternoon trading.
London's FTSE 100 index of leading shares closed up 4.9%, while the Frankfurt Dax gained 5.3% and the Paris CAC 40 soared 5.7%.
But in Tokyo, the Nikkei stock market index fell 0.4% to hit its lowest reading since October 1982 on investor worries that there is no quick fix in sight for the troubles afflicting Asia's leading economy.
China was meanwhile the source of another worrisome indicator as it reported its first drop in consumer prices - deflation - in more than six years.
Deflation, combined with recession, can sap corporate earnings, cut deeply into growth and employment and reduce consumer spending.
AFP
CBA moves to calm Storm March 11, 2009 COMMONWEALTH Bank is negotiating confidential settlements with clients it shares with Storm Financial that could potentially cost the bank tens of millions of dollars as it tries to head off legal action over its alleged role in the collapse of the failed wealth adviser and the financial ruin of its clients.
CBA said yesterday it had a team negotiating "rearrangements" with the Storm clients. Some of the deals are expected to avoid a public-relations nightmare for the bank, which might otherwise be forcing destitute pensioners out of their homes.
BusinessDay has also sighted documents dealing with the settlement of margin loans by Storm clients for what appears to be a reduced sum. All the deals will require that clients sign away any right to legal action against CBA over the debacle.
"In this climate, it is appropriate that the bank is seeking appropriate legal arrangements with its customers to ensure that any rearrangements of facilities are final and conclusive, to allow all parties to move on," the bank said in a statement.
Storm clients who took the failed company's advice - borrowing against their homes, taking out margin loans, and investing the lot in index funds -were caught out when the sharemarket collapsed last year. Thousands face losses that are expected to top $1 billion.
CBA was the largest provider of mortgages, margin loans, and fund management services to Storm clients.
A class action being prepared by Slater & Gordon is expected to allege that Storm effectively acted as an agent for CBA, and other Storm partners like Bank of Queensland, which would make them liable for its flawed advice.
CBA is believed to be offering a complete freeze on mortgages where the clients are pensioners and unable to make payments. These clients are effectively being offered "life tenancy" in their homes, which will only be sold after their deaths to pay the bank's loan. In some cases, CBA will not charge interest and the loan will not be indexed to inflation.
CBA said it was making settlements on a case-by-case basis and subject to confidentiality, because each customer had unique financial circumstances.
"The bank does not want other customers, whose circumstances may be different, gaining a mistaken view of what the bank might do in different circumstances," it said.
Just last month, CBA chief executive Ralph Norris publicly washed his hands of the debacle. "The situation (Storm) have got themselves into is their responsibility," he said.
The bank maintained that line yesterday despite the generous concessions now on offer.
"The bank does not concede that it is liable in any way in relation to the collapse of Storm or the effect of that collapse on ex-clients of Storm who are bank customers," the bank said.
Bank of Queensland said it already had hardship provisions in place for customers who experienced financial difficulties and was not planning any specific deal for Storm clients.
CBA's offer was welcomed by consumer advocate John McLennan, who is working with the Storm Investors Consumer Action Group. "We never dreamt that within six weeks the bank would have a team of people doing settlements," he said. "Our position is each individual has to make up their own mind."
Slater & Gordon's Damien Scattini said the deals might open CBA to accusations of undue influence and unconscionable conduct given the distressed state of customers and the short time given for people to settle. "It's disappointing they want to go about things this way," he said.
(20min delay)