October durable goods orders dropped 0.4% to a seasonally adjusted $214.45 billion from the revised decline of 1.4% in September.

U.S. commercial crude inventories at the end of the last week fell 0.4 million barrels but that for gasoline increased by 1.4 million barrels, and distillate inventories declined 0.1%.

Asian markets across the region declined on the weak sentiment and worries related to global credit markets. Korea led the decliners in the region with a fall of 1.4% followed by losses in Taiwan of 1.2%, in India of 1%, in Australia of 0.9%, and in Thailand of 0.3%. Indonesia led the gainers in the region with a rise of 1.7% followed by increases in Hong Kong of 0.6% and 0.4% in Philippines.

Falling oil prices in the region led the energy companies in China, Japan, and India lower. Steel companies in Korea declined as well. Hyundai Steel fell 4% and Posco declined 3%.

European market rallied after the U.S. markets opened sharply higher on the rate cut optimism. Norway led the region with a rise of 3% followed by increases in UK of 2.7%, in Switzerland and Germany of 2.6%, in France of 2.4%, and in Italy of 2%. The Netherlands and Spain jumped 1.7%.

Financial services companies the led the gainers in the region. UBS and Barclays surged 6%, Credit Suisse added 3%, and HSBC increased 2%.

Stork jumped 7% after it received a takeover offer for the company at 1.5 billion euros or 48.40 euros per share from Candover Investments.

Compass Group surged 9.2% after it reported its earnings of 515 million pounds, including one time extra ordinary gain on asset sale. The UK based company reported 42% increase in its full year profit on flat annual revenue of 10.27 billion pounds.

German auto maker Porsche jumped 9% after it said that its four months sales may increase as much as 15% to 2.36 billion euros from a year ago. Unit sales in the four month period are expected to rise 18% to 30,700 from 25,939.

Porsche estimated revenue in the fiscal 2008 to match that in the fiscal 2007 of 7.4 billion euros and unit sale of 97,500.

[R]4:00AM New York, 6:00PM Tokyo - October retail sales in Japan increased 0.8%.[/R]

Stocks in Japan fell on the U.S. sub-prime losses maintained their grip on the market. In Tokyo trading Nikkei 225 slid 0.45% or 69.07 to 15,153.78, while the broader Topix index fell 3.14% to 1,475.64.

In the first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange 9.5 billion shares worth 1.1 trillion yen were traded and in the second section 534 million shares worth 9.0 billion yen changed hands.

Of the Nikkei 225 stocks 87 gained, 132 declined and 6 were unchanged. Of the index stocks 26 lost 2% or more.

Mitsui O.S.K. Lines led decliners in the index with a fall of 4.67%, followed by losses of 4.61% in Nikon Corp, 4.42% in Toyota Tsusho, 4.41% in Kumagai Gumi Company, and 4.24% in Inpex Holdings.

Shipping lines fell as Goldman, Sachs & Co. cut its rating on metal producers from “attractive” to “neutral” on projected fall in demand for raw materials caused by a slowdown in the U.S. Kawasaki Heavy Industries fell 2.27% as a result.

Oil prices for January delivery fell 3.4% to $94.42 a barrel and Mitsubishi Corp fell 2.35%.

U.S. mortgage lender Wells Fargo & Co. reported a $1.4 billion pretax charge related to increased losses on sub-prime loans as the housing market continues to sour. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group declined 1.55%, Mizuho Financial Group slumped 1.76% and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group retreated 2.44% on the news.

Separately, the private economic consulting company Conference Board announced yesterday that the consumer confidence index fell to a two-year low to 87.3 in November on rising fuel costs and falling home prices.

S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index also showed yesterday that third quarter home prices declined 4.5% from a year earlier. Exporter fell on the news. Komatsu declined 2.87%, Toyota Motor Corporation slipped 1.64%, and Honda Motor Corporation fell 1.37%.