Venezuela dropped 0.11%.

Asian Markets

In Tokyo Nikkei 225 Index closed lower 752.89 or 5.65% to 12,573.05, in Hong Kong Hang Seng index decreased 2061.23 or 8.65% closed to 21,757.63, in Australia ASX 200 index declined 393.60 or 7.05% to close 5,186.80.

In South Korea Kospi Index decreased 74.54 or 4.43% to close at 1,609.02, in Thailand SET index closed lower 24.99 or 3.26% to 741.54, and Indonesia JSE Index edged decreased 191.36 or 7.70% to 2,294.52. Sensex index in India decreased 875.40 or 4.97% to 16,729.94.


European Markets

In London FTSE 100 Index closed higher 161.90 or 2.90% to 5,740.10, in Paris CAC 40 Index increased 98.09 or 2.07% to close at 4,842.54 and in Frankfurt DAX index lower 20.72 or 0.31% to close at 6,769.47. In Zurich trading SMI increased 200.78 or 2.76% to close at 7,487.92.

Bond Yields decreased on 10-year U.S. bonds to 3.45% and 30-year bonds declined to 4.21%.

Commodities, Metals, and Currencies

Crude oil fell $0.74 to close at $89.18 per barrel for a front month contract, natural gas decreased 35 cents to $7.64 per mBtu, and gasoline futures decreased 2.80 cents to close at 227.54 cents per gallon.

Gold increased $11.10 in New York trading to close at $892.80 per ounce, silver closed down 9 cents to $16.125 per ounce, and copper for front month delivery decreased 4.15 cents to 319.30 per pound and in London copper futures decreased $268.00 to $6,889.00.

Dollar edged higher against euro to $1.4628 and nearly unchanged against yen at 106.460.


2:00PM New York – Wachovia bank suffered a severe profit decline on sub-prime losses and other consumer loan losses.

Wachovia Bank (WB: chart) reported fourth quarter profit of $51 million or 3 cents per share compared to $2.32 billion or $1.20 per share.

Excluding after-tax net A G Edwards brokerage merger-related expenses of 5 cents per share in the fourth quarter of 2007 and 1 cent per share in the fourth quarter of 2006, earnings were $160 million, or 8 cents per share, in the fourth quarter of 2007 compared with $2.33 billion, or $1.21 per share, in the fourth quarter of 2006.

The merger of A G Edwards, Inc was completed on October 1, 2007.

Full year 2007 net income was $6.31 billion, down 19 percent from $7.79 billion in 2006, and earnings per share were down 30 percent from 2006 to $3.26. Excluding after-tax net merger-related expenses of 8 cents in 2007 and 7 cents in 2006, earnings in 2007 were $6.47 billion, or $3.34 per share, compared with $7.91 billion, or $4.70 per share, in 2006.

Wachovia took in the quarter a charge of $1.7 billion and credit losses of $1.5 billion.

Revenue in the quarter declined to $7.2 billion from $8.6 billion from a year ago.