Monday, November 3, 2008

Credit Markets Continue to Loosen

F.rom the desk of:

Rich Storey
Mortgage Advisor
615.260.8028

Credited to: www.USAToday.com



Easing credit lifts U.S. stock futures

By Ellis Mnyandu, Reuters
NEW YORK — U.S. stock index futures rose Monday as a further drop in interbank lending rates suggested that credit continues to loosen up.
The costs for banks to borrow dollars from each other fell again, sending three-month rates down for a 17th day and boosting hopes that steps to restore confidence in credit markets are paying off.
Free-flowing credit is seen as crucial in helping avert an acute economic downturn as investors fret about a global recession.
Overseas, Britain's FTSE 100 stock index rose 0.73%, Germany's DAX index was up 0.96%, and France's CAC-40 advanced 0.35%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index climbed 2.7%. Japan's stock market was closed for a holiday.
SHOCK-TOBER ENDS: Can stocks keep rising?
Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Avalon Partners in New York says the market has probably discounted an election victory by Democrat Barack Obama, heading into Tuesday's U.S. presidential election.
"It looks like we will have a Democratic president, so the election and the anticipation of the economic data is probably going to keep the market in a very tight range for most of the session today and tomorrow as we go to the polls."
Dow Jones industrial average futures were up 54 points early Monday, Nasdaq 100 futures gained 2.00 points.
Democrat Barack Obama heads into Tuesday's voting in a comfortable position, with Republican Sen. John McCain struggling to overtake his lead in every national opinion poll and to hold off his challenge in about a dozen states won by President Bush in 2004.
Obama leads McCain in six of eight key battleground states, including the big prizes of Florida and Ohio, according to a series of Reuters/Zogby polls released Monday.
U.S. stocks ended one of their worst months on record on Friday but signs of further thawing in credit markets boosted battered shares.

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