World stock markets stabilizing after deep dives
BANGKOK: World stock markets stabilized Tuesday after a day of dramatic plunges as futures pointed to a measure of calm returning to Wall Street following the Dow's sixth-worst decline in the last 112 years.
To be sure, investors remained on edge amid fears of a possible global recession. But by late afternoon, major Asian indexes had pulled back from a dizzying tailspin earlier in the day. Key European bourses opened higher.
Futures suggested U.S. stocks would recuperate Tuesday. Dow futures were up 307 points, or 2.9 percent, at 11,032 and broader S&P 500 futures added 33.70 points, or 3 percent, to 1,145.50.
In Europe, Britain's FTSE 100 was up 0.7 percent at 5,103. Germany's DAX rose 1.5 percent at 6,009 and the CAC-40 in Paris jumped 2.1 percent at 3,191.
Some analysts said short covering _ when traders are forced to buy stock after having earlier sold borrowed shares in a bet that the market would fall _ may have stanched the flow of money out of equities earlier in the day. Short covering generally causes stocks to go up.
``Fear and anxiety ruled the morning session with broad based capitulation giving way to some mild buying and serious short covering this afternoon,'' Ben Potter, market strategist at IG Markets in Melbourne, said in a research note.
South Korea's Kospi lost 3.6 percent to 1,801.35 after plummeting nearly 10 percent in the morning. Hong Kong's Hang Seng, which fell as much as 7 percent, was down 2.3 percent at 20,024.93.
Japan's Nikkei 225 stock average pulled back from a fall of more than 4 percent to close 1.7 percent lower at 8,944.48 _ its lowest closing since March 15 _ just days after the earthquake and tsunami disasters.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 index moved into positive territory _ closing up 1.2 percent at 4,034.80 _ while mainland China's key indexes fell modestly.
The big moves, which added to sharp losses in the past few days, came after the Dow Jones industrials fell 634.76 points on Monday. It was Wall Street's first day of trading after Standard & Poor's downgrade of the U.S. credit rating _ which jolted the global financial system and reinforced anxiety that the U.S. economic recovery is stalling.
``It's still very hard to predict how the U.S. market will do,'' said Jackson Wong, vice president of Tanrich Securities in Hong Kong. ``When the dust settles, if the situation doesn't get worse in the U.S. or Europe, the situation will rebound. But the U.S. has to stabilize.''
Worries about the U.S. economic recovery have been building since the government said that economic growth was far weaker in the first half of 2011 than economists expected. Intensifying concerns were reports showing that the manufacturing and services industries barely grew in July, although job growth was better than economists expected last month.
Investors are also worried that Italy and Spain could become the next European countries to have trouble repaying their debts. Greece, Ireland and Portugal have already received bailout loans because of Europe's 21-month-old debt crisis.
The fears have pushed investors to shun Spanish and Italian bonds, which have led to higher yields and in even higher borrowing costs for the two countries.
The European Central Bank stepped in Monday and bought billions of euros worth of their bonds. The move helped to lower yields on Spanish and Italian bonds, at least temporarily.
Benchmark oil for September delivery traded at $79.47 on the New York Mercantile Exchange after falling to $75.71, its lowest since September 2010. The contract settled at $81.31 per barrel on the Nymex on Monday.
In currencies, the dollar weakened to 77.41 yen from 77.70 yen late Monday in New York. The euro rose to $1.4262 from $1.4196.
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Artist with an engineer's eye
turned hobby into niche market business
PATRICIA MEARES
SILVERSMITH
21-7-1938 - 18-2-2011
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PATSY Meares, a Melbourne silversmith who over 50 years created some of Australia's most exquisite jewellery pieces, has died of cancer at The Alfred hospital. She was 72.
Her career began in the 1950s when she became bored in Kent, England, while her husband, Russell Meares, now emeritus professor of psychiatry at Sydney University, was completing post-graduate studies at London University, and he suggested she get a job.
Silver jewellery had always fascinated her so she joined a night class in silversmithing. Friends liked and bought what she made. A decade later, after they had returned to Melbourne and she and her husband had divorced, Meares turned her hobby into a living and worked 30 or more hours a week while raising three children.
She proved to be an artist with an engineer's eye for precision, turning the shapes of seashells, flowers, insects, fish and her own designs into finely wrought necklaces, bracelets, rings and earrings, brooches, pillboxes, picture frames, cuff links and tableware in silver and sometimes gold.
Essentially she created pieces for the people around her - family, friends, fellow artists and men successful in business and the professions, to all of whom she was sparkling company.
Meares sold in Melbourne through Georges and the Kozminsky Galleries. She also sold in Sydney, New York and London, and at times in Canberra when she received commissions to provide gifts for guests of the federal government. She also sold privately through annual exhibitions disguised as cocktail parties in her home in South Yarra.
But she never allowed her output to reach commercial mass because repetition bored her. "It must be individual," she said. "I have no time for junk." This explains why, in the 1960s, she created a man's ring of knotted silver - knots in jewellery representing friendship - a design still so distinctive that she might have sold hundreds but she produced only three, one of which she gave to her youngest son and another to one of her closest friends. A third, in gold, remains in her collection.
Silver became part of her persona. She once described herself as a shop and developed a curious knack of wearing an abundance of necklaces, bracelets and rings without ever appearing vulgar. If someone admired a piece, she would often take it off and sell it to them. If a friend admired a piece, she would, on occasion, take it off and give it to them.
She found a new interest, developing a course of training in her home and passing on her craft in small hands-on classes.
Meares was the daughter of the late Irene and Rex Townley of Hobart. The Townleys have long been well known in Tasmania as pharmacists and members of parliament. Rex Townley was a member and then leader of the Liberal opposition in the Tasmanian Parliament in the 1950s and '60s while his brother, Athol, was defence minister in the federal parliament. Her one surviving brother, Michael, was a senator for 17 years in the 1970s and '80s.
She is survived by her children, Peter, Amanda and Jo. Her last word to them was a comment on her rapidly approaching death - the one word she had used emphatically throughout her life to dismiss anything that did not interest her: "Boring!" But that is something she never was.
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Tullett Prebon Revenue Drops as Brokers in North America Quit to Join BGC
Tullett Prebon Plc, the London-based interdealer broker, said four-month sales fell 3 percent as brokers in North America quit to join rival BGC Partners Inc.
Revenue in the months of July to October fell to 292 million pounds ($469 million), the company said in a statement today. It didn’t give a comparable year-earlier figure.
Tullett sued three executives affiliated with rival BGC Partners Inc. in August in New York, alleging they helped plot the hiring of 77 of its staffers. Tullet and units have sued rivals at least four times seeking damages for poaching employees.
“Market activity in the period since the half year has been relatively subdued without any sustained periods of higher volatility,” the company said in the statement. The drop in revenue reflects “the net effect of the broker defections in North America following the raid by BGC in the second half of last year.”
Tullett fell 7 percent in London trading yesterday to 369 pence, giving the broker a market value of about 795 million pounds. The shares have risen 32 percent this year.
