In Asia-Pacific equity markets, only India’s Sensex 30 (-0.34%) was down on the day, but that index was up +5.5% on Friday. The others were very strong: Australia All-Ords (+4.3%), Shanghai Composite (+7.8%), Hong Kong Hang Seng (+1.6%), and Japanese Nikkei 225 (+1.42%).

The European bourses are modestly down from -0.2% to -0.4%, but trading on the FTSE is extremely volatile. The DJIA futures are down -79 to 11280.

As I type, a reaction has just hit the equity market in Europe and the DJIA futures in NY: A Japanese bank has just agreed to buy a 20% interest in Morgan Stanley. Broad market prices are now in rally mode, but especially for the Financials.

The $USD had been hammered down to 77.235 prior to the MS news announcement; the Euro futures were soaring at 145.42. Crude Oil was up +$3.83/bbl and the spot precious metal prices had lifted: gold +10 to 878.00, palladium +8 to 246.0, platinum +44 to 1205, and silver +0.31 to 12.92.

Now the DJIA futures have gone positive.

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Immediately after the Morgan Stanley deal was announced, the pre-market price for MS jumped almost +10%. The losing equity futures became less so; commodity price increases became less so; and the $USD started to strengthen.

This is what I talk about when I say the market is a dance.

This is also the kind of action that will now happen as Bull sentiment creeps back into equities. Traders start looking for positives, ie, the glass is now half full kind of thing.

Same thing is happening today with Microsoft (MSFT) regarding an announced stock buy-back.

The bottom line is as I relayed in the WIR: equity prices up, commodity prices up, bond prices down, $USD down, gold up. Volatility stays high. Traders will now walk up the wall of worry, cognizant that higher interest rates and commodity prices are not good for a fragile economy.

The thing is you have to have a mind-set clearly set and then your trading strategies and tactics will flow off that base. My mind-set is now bullish. But you all know that risk management takes precedence over reaching for reward opportunities.

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Links & Charts

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International Economics Review

US Economic Calendar.

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International Equity Markets Review

Europe

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

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

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Here is the latest session data for the German DAX.

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

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

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

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Asia-Pacific

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

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

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Here is the latest chart for the Singapore index .

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Here is the latest chart for the Shanghai Composite index .

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

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

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

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US Equity Markets Review

DJIA (interactive) chart

NASDAQ Composite (interactive) chart

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Oil Review

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

Interactive Chart of Daily Crude Oil:

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Gold & Precious Metals Review

Spot gold chart for the week

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Spot silver chart for the week

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Forex Review

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

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