After an extraordinary weekend which saw Bank of America agree to buy Merrill Lynch for about $44bn after abandoning talks to buy Lehman Brothers; Lehman Brothers edging closer to bankruptcy and AIG turn to the Fed for help after rejecting private equity buyers (see items below), we’re kicking off this 6am Cut with overnight markets to update you on commodities (oil at a 6-month low), currencies (the dollar tumbles) and markets news. Markets in Japan and China were closed Monday for a public holiday, but the US opened a special Sunday trading session for OTC derivatives so dealers could limit the damage from Lehman’s looming debacle.
Read on:
Index futures - Sunday
S&P 500 down 37.1 (2.5%)
DJIA down 306
Nasdaq 100 down 41.25
US markets (Fri)
Friday’s close:
DJIA down 11.72 at 11,421.99
Nasdaq up 3.05 at 2,261.27
S&P500 up 2.65 at 1,251.70
Asian markets (Japan/HK closed Mon)
Friday’s close:
Nikkei (Fri) up 112.26 at 12,214.76
Topix (Fri) up 14.48 at 1,177.20
Hang Seng (Fri) down 35.82 at 19,352.90
European markets (Fri)
FTSE100 up 98.37 at 5,416.73
Eurofirst 300 up 21.44 at 1,162.15
Currencies
05.40am BST
€/$ 1.4374 (1.4002)
$/Y 105.75 (107.12)
£/$ 1.8012 (1.7582)
Commodities
Brent Crude (Oct08) down $1.57 at $96.01
Light Crude (Oct08) down $2.04 at $99.14
3M Copper 24HR up $30.00 at $7,155.00
100 Oz Gold (Dec8) up $20.70 at $785.20
10-year government bond yields (%)
US 3.52 (3.62)
UK 4.59 (4.44)
Germany 4.17 (4.08)
Japan 1.54 (1.53)
Sources: FT, Reuters
