US equities staged a late recovery on Thursday to close mixed after the London stock market tumbled more than 4 per cent, its biggest one-day fall since March 2003, as a flight from risky assets fuelled further market turmoil and Asian stocks plunged on Friday. The FTSE100 index closed 250.4 points lower at 5,858.93, its lowest level since September 2006. Financial and mining stocks suffered most although US bank and brokerage stocks rose on speculation that the Fed would cut interest rates in response to credit market upheavals. In Canada, banks announced a plan to stabilise the asset-backed commercial paper market and, Bloomberg reports, in Australia, the central bank intervened in the forex market for the first time in six years.

This entry was posted by Gwen Robinson on Friday, August 17th, 2007 at 5:54 and is filed under Capital markets. Edit this entry.