Global Stocks Surge on Credit-Market Moves

German, French indexes drop more than 3%; Asian stocks down at close

(NEWSER) - European stock markets opened markedly lower today over continued misgivings about the situation in the US and Europe, the New York Times reports. Germany’s main index fell 3.9% this morning, while France’s fell 3.4%—on the heels of yesterday's 5% drop; Britain’s benchmark index was down 2.8%. Meanwhile, Asian stocks tumbled, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 closing down 2.5%, South Korea’s Kospi falling 6.2%, and Tawain’s Taiex dropping 3.6%. In Australia, the market closed down 3.5%. More»

First Western ban on practice since Lehman fall

(NEWSER) - European markets are up today following the decision by four countries to ban short-selling of some stocks. After stumbling this morning, London’s FTSE 100, Frankfurt’s Dax, and Paris' Cac rose between 1.5% and 2.5%, the BBC reports. The last major Western short-selling ban came in the US and UK after the fall of Lehman Brothers. There are no plans to expand the current temporary bans beyond France, Italy, Spain, and Belgium, said a top European regulator—but he wouldn’t rule it out. More»

Regulators say they scored $50M by manipulating '08 spike

(NEWSER) - Federal regulators have charged a pair of big-time traders and their firms with illegally manipulating oil prices during the 2008 oil crisis. According to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the firms made $50 million in “unlawful profits” by hoarding nearly two-thirds of the oil available in one major US trading hub, creating the impression of scarcity and driving up prices. Then they allegedly took big short positions and dumped their barrels back onto the market all at once, crashing prices, the New York Times reports. More»

Growth fits economists' predictions

(AP) - The economy grew slightly faster over the summer as Americans spent a little more freely: The GDP grew at a 2% rate during the third quarter, in line with what economists had forecast. It marks a slight improvement over last quarter, when the GDP grew at a 1.7% rate. Consumers helped boost last quarter's economic growth with 2.6% growth in spending, the biggest quarterly increase since the end of 2006, before the recession hit. More»

(NEWSER) - Stocks limped higher at the open today, after a punishing Monday session that left the Dow below 7,000, its worst levels since April 1997. Today the Dow was up 80 points in early trading, the Wall Street Journal reports, while the S&P and Nasdaq added 1.6% and 1.5%, respectively. Financial stocks were modestly higher, with Citigroup up 11% and Bank of America up 4.7% More»