10:30AM NY – U.S. stocks trade lower led by another decline in housing sector.

U.S. market averages after thirty minutes of trading are in the negative territory. Oil is trading $1.20 per barrel higher to $64.20 and trades indicate oil may trade higher in the coming days. Last week U.S. reported less than expected decline in oil and gasoline inventory. Tensions in the middle-east remain high and U.K. releases what they claim to be evidence that British sailors were seized by Iran in international zone.

Tech stocks fell at the opening along with broader market averages but managed to rebound after fifteen minutes of trading. Google, Yahoo, Accenture and Motorola gained.
Accenture rose on better than expected earnings.

ADRs of China related stocks fell in the morning trading but Chinese tech stocks rose along with the U.S. stocks. Asian markets slumped sharply in the overnight trading. China, India, Singapore and Japan closed lower.

Oil complex stocks rose mildly on the higher oil prices. Norfolk Southern (NS) traded higher on the news that the company is planning to buyback shares. The company raised its buyback program to 75 million shares from 50 million and reduced its buyback time to Dec 31, 2010 from Dec 31, 2015.

9:30AM NY – 2:00PM Frankfurt – U.S. stock futures decline on rise in oil and less than expected gain in durable goods orders.

U.S. stock-index futures fell thirty minutes before the official trading on several negative trends in the market. Oil traded up $1.10 to $64.10 per barrel, after rising as much as $5 on rumors that Iran had fired a missile at a U.S. ship. Oil backed-off after trading above $68.

Durable goods orders in February rose 2.5%, less than expected. Spending by businesses on equipment and technology fell in 9.3% in January triggering a sharp sell-off of more than 400 points. Manufacturing sector appears to be still struggling and market was expecting a larger rebound in the orders.

Home builders may come face another day of sell-off. FBI said that it is investigating Beazer Homes (BZH) for aggressive selling of mortgages to buyers who may not be able to afford it. U.S. Attorney’s office said that it will investigate the matter and has requested the documents from the company.

Accenture Ltd (ACN) rose $1.05 in early trading on second quartet earnings report of 47 cents vs. 11 cents a year ago. Caterpillar and Boeing fell.


9:00AM Asian markets finished sharply lower on U.S. growth concerns.
Asian markets ended distinctly lower on Wednesday. Tokyo Nikkei 225 Average gave back earlier gains, falling as much as 1%, ending 0.6% lower at 17,254.73. Toyota, largest automaker in Japan, fell 1.4 %. Sony Corp., the maker of consumer electronics which made 70% of its sales overseas last year, fell 2.1%.

Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., the world largest contract manufacturer, declined 2.3%. Shares of Sapporo Holdings were down 1.7% on reports that shareholders are likely to support measures Thursday that will make it difficult for an outside group to takeover the brewer.

Hong Kong Hang Seng Index was 0.9% lower at 19,525.32. Shares of Hong Kong-listed Hang Lung Properties fell 3.1%. Shares of Hong Kong fixed-line operator PCCW were up 0.9% ahead of the release of its full-year results later Wednesday.

South Korea Kospi Index closed 0.9% lower to 1,439.74, Straits Times Index in Singapore ended 1.3% down at 3,201.17 and Taiwan Weighted Price Index shed 0.7% to 7,788.14. Australian S&P ASX/200 closed down 0.7% to 5,923.20 and Shanghai Composite Index egded lower 1.1% to end at 3173.01. Both markets had posted gains earlier in the session.

Oil stocks bucked the trend and advanced. Shares of Inpex rose 2% in Tokyo trading, while Nippon Oil, Japan largest oil distributor, rose 0.7%. Also on the advance, Australian Woodside Petroleum was up 0.3% and Chinese Cnooc rose 0.3% in Hong Kong.


8:00AM NY-7:00PM Mumbai Sensex plummets on heavy selling in large-caps.
The Sensex on BSE finished 239.98 points, or 1.83%, lower at 12,884.34. The session was highly volatile as the market traded within a range of 175 points. The market breadth was weak as there were three decliners for each advancer. As 1,936 stocks declined, 651 advanced and 61 remained unchanged. Of the 30 stocks in the Sensex only eight advanced, while the rest declined. The turnover on BSE was Rs 4,008 crore, higher than Rs 3,209.57 crore on Monday, while on NSE, the turnover was Rs 8,363.28 crore, much higher than Rs 6,753.15 on Monday.

Economic news

Deutsche Bank, biggest bank in Germany, will invest in emerging markets such as India, as it aims to expand consumer banking and money management to help increase pretax profit, excluding nonrecurring gains or costs, to 8.4 billion euros in 2008. The bank opened eight branches in India and began selling credit cards there.