U.S. stocks in roller coaster ride

Germany News.Net
Friday 10th October, 2008

Facing a wall of worry around the world, it was a breathtaking few minutes when Wall Street opened Friday.

The Dow Jones index plunged nearly 700 points in seven minutes. Within a half hour however the key index was back in the black, albeit briefly. Buyers seemed to return to the market after what many have been describing as a 'capitulation phase.'

The Dow then fell several hundred points until the last hour of trading when selling in past days has accelerated. It was a different story however Friday when the Dow and the broader indices rallied sharply as buy orders swept the market.

Stocks in Europe which had been down as much as 10% earlier, trimmed losses as Wall Street showed signs it may be stabilising.

At the close of trading the Dow Jones was down 128.00 points or 1.49% at 8,451.19, well off its earlier low.

The Nasdaq Composite actually finished up 4.39 points or 0.27% at 1,649.51.

The Standard and Poor's 500 was down 6.43 points or 0.71% at 903.49 minutes before the close.

The gyrations on the stock market spread to currencies. The freefall of the Australian dollar continued with the unit trading at .6340, well off its high of two months ago of .9840. It did recover a little to trade at .6480 around the New York close The Canadian dollar was also smashed. It traded at 1.2030, before rebounding to 1.1770.

The British pound fell to a five year low below 1.6900 before finishing the day at 1.7044. The euro fell to 1.3288 before recovering to 1.3403 around the New York close.

The Japanese yen rose to 97.91 in Asia, but had retreated to 100.38 in New York. The Swiss franc fell to 1.1343, reversing earlier gains.

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