[R]4:30PM New York, 10:30PM Frankfurt, 8:30AM Sydney[/R]


North American Markets indexes

Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 101.05 or 0.76% to a close of 13,264.82, S&P 500 edged lower 10.13 or 0.69% to 1,468.36, and Nasdaq Composite Index traded down 22.18 or 0.83% to a close of 2,652.28. In Toronto TSX Composite gained 11.72 or 0.08% to close at 13,833.06.

In 2007, Nasdaq led the gainers with a rise of 9.8% followed by increases in Dow Jones of 6.4%, and in S&P 500 of 3.5%. TSX Index rose 7.3%, a rise for the fifth year in a row.

Of the 30 stocks in Dow Jones Industrial Average, 6 closed higher, 24 closed lower, and none was unchanged.

Verizon led the decliners in the index with a loss of 2.1% followed by losses in AT&T of 2.01%, in IBM of 1.8%, in Hewlett Packard of 1.7%, and in General Motors of 1.6%.

American Express led the gainers in the index with a rise of 2.3% followed by increases in Home Depot of 0.97%, in JP Morgan Chase of 0.9%, and in AIG of 0.6%.

Of the stocks in S&P 500, 156 closed higher, 342 fell, and 2 were unchanged.

Only one stock, Unisys, fell more than 3% and four rose more than 3%.

Fannie Mae led the gainers in the index with a rise of 4.3% followed by increases in Washington Mutual of 4.1%, in Sovereign Bancorp of 4.01%, in Freddie Mac of 4%, in CIT Group of 2.8%, and in Legg Mason of 2.7%.


Unisys led the decliners in the index with a loss of 5.4% followed by losses in Brunswick of 2.85%, in cognizant of 2.8%, in Nucor of 1.6%, in Air Products of 2.7%, and in XTO Energy of 1.4%.

South American Markets Indexes

In Latin Markets Mexico closed 0.6% lower, the only market that was open for trading on Monday.

Bovespa Index led the region in 2007 with a rise of 43% followed by 36% gain in Peru, and 13% rise in Colombia.

The Brazil currency rose 20% in 2007 against dollar, Colombian peso advanced 11%, Chilean peso increased 7.1%, and Peruvian sol 6.6%. Mexican peso declined 0.9% against dollar after losing 1.6% in 2006.

European Markets Indexes

In London FTSE 100 Index closed lower 20.00 or 0.31% to 6,456.90, in Paris CAC 40 Index decreased 13.17 or 0.23% to close at 5,614.08, and in Frankfurt DAX index also increased 28.72 or 0.36% to close at 8,067.32 in Friday’s trading. In Zurich trading SMI lower 33.73 or 0.40% to close at 8,484.46 on Friday, in the last day of trading in 2007.

Russia’s Micex index declined 1% to 1,888.86 in Friday but managed to gain 12% for the year. RTS Index dropped 0.1% to 2,290.51 and for the year rose 27.3%.