At the end of a turbulent day in markets, US stocks didn't fare too badly under the circumstances. MarketWatch reports:
U.S. stocks shook off the bulk of their steep losses on Monday, with J.P. Morgan Chase fronting a blue-chip rise just one day after its heavily discounted bid for Bear Stearns Cos. and the Federal Reserve's extraordinary discount rate cut, its first weekend move in nearly 30 years...
The Dow Jones Industrial Average picked up steam in the final hour of trade, gaining more than 100 points before dropping back to end 21.16 points higher, to 11,972.25, with 22 of its 30 components posting gains. Dow industrials were down nearly 200 points at the open...
Broader indexes remained in negative turf, with the S&P 500 off 11.54 points to 1,276.60, while the Nasdaq Composite shed 35.48 points to 2,177.01...
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, crude for immediate delivery closed at $105.68 a barrel, down $4.53, after rising to a new high of $111.80 a barrel. See full story.
Elsewhere on the Nymex, gold futures for April delivery finished up $3.10 at $1,002.60 an ounce, after reaching a high of $1,033.90 overnight. Read more.
In currencies, the greenback remained under pressure but came off record lows hit earlier, with the dollar index at 71.45, up from an overnight low of 70.698.
The market's now anticipating a 1% point cut in the federal funds rate at or before the central bank's policy meeting Tuesday.
Despite the crisis being centred in the US, stock markets elsewhere were the ones more badly hit yesterday. In Asia, the Nikkei 225 fell 3.7 percent and the Hang Seng lost 5.2 percent. In Europe, the Dow Jones Stoxx 600 fell 4.6 percent.
Meanwhile, the news on the real economy in the US yesterday weren't very upbeat either, with industrial production falling 0.5 percent in February, manufacturing activity in the New York area falling to a record low level in March while home builder sentiment remains in the doldrums.
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