Wall Street swung wildly overnight through a 800 point plus range, slumping 560 points at one stage, before soaring back in later afternoon trading.
That saw the ASX 200 futures market fell slide more than 70 points at one stage before following Wall Street higher to be up more than 30 points at 8am, making for a surprise positive start to the day which wasn’t on the cards at 6am.
The Aussie dollar however didn’t budge during the big sell off (apart from a small dip), and it also rode the rebound, jumping back above 69 US cents for a gain of three quarters of a cent on the night.
Driving Wall Street lower and into correction territory in early trading was a big sell off in Asia (Australia fell away late Wednesday to close down 1.3% or nearly 62 points) which continued into Asia, dragging the London market (down 3.5%) into bear territory where it joined Germany, France, Italy and Tokyo markets and China which lost 1% yesterday. Hong Kong was also grabbed by the bear after easing 3.6% yesterday.
On Wall Street the Nasdaq Composite rebounded into positive territory near the end of the session after earlier sliding 3.7% But it closed off 5 points, down 0.11%. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index was down 0.4% half an hour from the close after being down 3.6%. It ended the day down 1.19%, or 22 points.
The Dow was off 0.9% with half an hour to go after it too was down 3.6% earlier in the day. It ended the day off 1.455% or 249 points, which is still a substantial loss, but far better than the 560 plunge earlier.
Oil staged a more modest recovery. In London, Brent crude settled 3% lower at $US27.88 a barrel, compared to earlier losses of more than 5%. West Texas Intermediate, the main US crude shed a massive 6.7% to end at $US26.55 a barrel after plunging more than 7%.
Iron ore lost 1% and is back under $US42 a tonne and copper shed ground ended up 1% at $US1.95 a pounds. Gold also rose, up 1.2% at $US1,108 an ounce.
Earlier, many market Global hit two-and-a-half year lows, with Japan entering a bear market, as a further slide in oil prices rattles investors. Yield on US 10 year Treasuries fell under 2% (closing at 1.99%) for the first time in four months as worried investors sough safe havens. Yields on German 10 year bunds also fell sharply for the same reason. BHP shares fell 7% in London and Rio Tinto shares lost 4%.
