In Asia-Pacific markets earlier today, the Hang Seng of Hong Kong plunged -4.3 pct, Shanghai -7.2 pct, the Nikkei 225 of Japan -4.0 pct, BSE 30 of India -1.1 pct, Straits of Singapore -3.8 pct, South Korea Kospi -3.9 pct and Taiwan -3.3 pct. The All-Ordinaries of Australia was closed.

At 7:23am ET, early action on European bourses was also negative, but less so. After all, the US President is giving his internationally televised State of the Union Address this evening, and he will be uplifting, you can be assured. The FTSE 100 of the UK was down -1.7 pct, the DAX of Germany -1.1 pct, and the CAC 40 of France -1.2 pct.

The March DJIA futures are also negative, but also mildly so, down -20 (-0.15 pct).

US Treasury interest rate futures are mixed.

The Euro is up +0.53 pct against the USD to 1.4735.

Spot gold is flat at 920.40 since the session began at midnight. Spot silver is down -0.66 pct to 16.44, while spot platinum is up +0.18 pct to 1682.0.

US March Crude Oil is down -1.03 pct (-0.985/bbl) to 89.725/bbl.

---

Comments & Outlook

Today will be a day set up for immense spin by the usual Talking Heads.

I will comment later in the day.

Links & Charts

---

International Economics Review

US Economic Calendar.

---

International Equity Markets Review

Europe

Here is the latest session data for the bourses of Europe.

---

Here is the latest session data for the London stock exchange FTSE.

---

Here is the latest session data for the German DAX.

---

Here is the latest session data for the French CAC 40.

---

Here is the latest session data for the Milan Italy stock exchange MIBTEL.

---

Here is the latest session data for the Swiss market index.

---

Asia-Pacific

Here is the latest session data for the Asia-Pacific stock exchanges.

---

Here is the latest chart for the Japanese Nikkei 225 index.

---

Here is the latest chart for the Singapore index .

---

Here is the latest chart for the Shanghai Composite index .

---

Here is the latest chart for the Hong Kong Hang Seng index .

---

Here is the latest chart for the India BSE 30 index .

---

Here is the latest chart for the Australian All Ordinaries index .

---

US Equity Markets Review

DJIA (interactive) chart

NASDAQ Composite (interactive) chart

---

Oil Review

Here is the e-miNY Mar-08 Crude Oil chart.

Interactive Chart of Daily Crude Oil:

---

Gold & Precious Metals Review

Spot gold chart for the week

---

Spot silver chart for the week

---

Forex Review

Here is the chart of the week's trading in the $USD.

---