[R]5:00PM New York, 11:00PM Frankfurt, 9:00AM next day Sydney[/R]

North American Markets indexes

Countrywide Financial agreed to be bought by Bank of America for $4 billion in stock. American Express earnings warning dragged other financial services stocks lower. Amex and MasterCard fell nearly 10%. Tiffany same store sales declined during the last two months of the year 2007 hurting other retail stocks.

Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 246.79 or 1.92% to a close of 12,606.30, S&P 500 closed down 19.31 or 1.36% to 1,401.02, and Nasdaq Composite Index traded down 48.58 or 1.95% to a close of 2,439.94.

In Toronto TSX Composite closed down 10.08 or 0.07% to close at 13,632.57.

Of the 30 stocks in Dow Jones Industrial Average, 4 closed higher, 26 closed lower, and none was unchanged.

American Express led the decliners in the index with a fall of 10% followed by losses in McDonalds Corp of 6.6%, in 3M Company of 3.3%, and in Procter Gamble of 3.2%, and in AT&T of 3.05%.

Citigroup led the gainers in the index with a rise of 1.6% followed by increases in Alcoa of 0.9%, in Altria Group of 0.3%, and in Merck of 0.13%.

Of the stocks in S&P 500, 111 closed higher, 386 fell, and 3 were unchanged.

Nine stocks fell more than 3% and eighty nine stocks rose more than 3%.

Countrywide Financial led the decliners in the index with a fall of 18% followed by losses in Juniper Networks of 13%, in Tiffany of 11%, in Cognizant Technology of 9.5%, and in Broadcom of 8%.

MBIA led the gainers in the index with a rise of 17.6% followed by gains in Ambac of 12%, in CIT Group of 9%, in Circuit City of 7.6%, and in Freddie Mac of 5.6%.


South American Markets Indexes

In Latin Markets Brazil led the decliners in the region with a loss of 2.48% followed by decreases in Peru of 2.2%, in Mexico of 1.19%, and in Venezuela of 1.13%, and in Colombia of 1.06%.



Asian Markets

In Tokyo Nikkei 225 Index closed lower 277.32 or 1.93% to 14,110.79, in Hong Kong Hang Seng index decreased 363.85 or 1.34% closed to 26,867.01, in Australia ASX 200 index lower 97.10 or 1.60% to close 5,981.60.

In South Korea Kospi Index decreased 42.51 or 2.33% to close at 1,782.27, in Thailand SET index closed lower 3.71 or 0.46% to 796.47. Sensex index in India increased 245.37 or 1.19% to 20,827.45. Market of Indonesia was closed today.