Wall Street banks making big margin calls

A rolling margin call is being made on US investment firms.

JPMorgan Chase have revealed in a report that more default notices and margin calls are likely.

JPMorgan, which sent a default notice to Thornburg Mortgage after the lender missed a $28 million margin call, said the Carlyle Group had also missed a $37 million margin call.

In the report, the banks analysts said the credit crisis that began about a year ago would most likely intensify after Friday's weak February US employment report.

The JPMorgan report included a revised bleaker forecast for subprime-related home prices.

The bank now sees prices falling 30 percent, from its prior 25 percent forecast.

Job losses hit Wall St, Dow ends down 147, Nasdaq 8

U.S. stocks were hit with more bad news Friday, adding weight to the view the United States is heading for a recession.

The Labor department reported a loss of 63,000 jobs in the economy last month, far worse than expected, and well ahead of the 22,000 jobs lost in January.

At the close of trading the Dow Jones Industrials were down 146.70 points or 1.22% at 11,893.69.

The Nasdaq Composite was off only modestly, down 8.01 points or 36% at 2,212.49.

The Standard and Poor's 500 was down 10.97 points or 0.84% at 1,293.37.

The White House, confronting a falling economy, loss of confidence in financial markets, tumbling stock prices, and a collapsing dollar, was conceding an economic "slowdown," but taking issue with the term, "recession."

"This quarter's going to be a difficult quarter for the U.S. economy. We are in a low growth period in the economy," White House spokesman Tony Fratto said.

"Recession is a technical term," he said. "Regardless of what you call it, we are clearly in a period of a slowdown in economic growth."

"The question isn't what do you call it, the important thing is what are you doing about it? And we have been aggressively dealing with the slowdown with the stimulus package," the White House spokesman said.

Meantime the global equity market gloom continued with London's FTSE 100 losing another 1.15% Friday. The German DAX closed 1.17% lighter, and the Swiss SMI 1.32%. The Paris-based CAC 40 fell 1.26%.

In Asia, Japan's Nikkei 225 was down 3.27%. The Shanghai Composite lost 1.37%. The Australian All Ordinaries was down 2.95%. The Hong Kong Hang Seng shed 3.60%, while the Indian bourse, the BSE 30 fell 3.42%.

The U.S. dollar fell sharply in European trading breaking through crucial levels in European currencies and the Japanese yen.

Around the close in New York the rout had stabilized. The euro was quoted at 1.5346, the yen at 102.80, and the British pound at 2.0143. The Swiss franc was changing hands at 1.0252. The Australian dollar fell to .9277, and the Canadian dollar to .9892.

U.S. stocks shatter, Dow loses 215 points, Nasdaq 52

Traders on Wall Street continued to sell stocks Thursday, driving the major indices to major new lows.

Adding heat to the fire was a report by the U.S. Mortgage Bankers Association released on Thursday, which showed home foreclosures at their highest level in more than twenty years.

At the close of trading the Dow Jones Industrials were down a hefty 214.60 points or 1.75% at 12,040.39.

The tech-laden Nasdaq Composite was off 52.31 points or 2.30% at 2,220.50.

The Standard and Poor's 500 was down 29.35 points or 2.20% at 1,304.35.

U.S. home foreclosures rose to record highs in the December quarter, the Mortgage Bankers Association said Thursday. The number of foreclosures was higher than at any time since 1985.

The Labor Department also released data Thursday indicating the number of workers on jobless benefits remains at a two-and-a-half year high.

The U.S. dollar meantime sold off again. The euro reached new highs Thursday. At last call it was trading at 1.5388 around the New York close.

The British pound rallied to 2.0108, while the Swiss franc climbed to a three-year-high of 1.0216.

The Japanese yen rose to 102.57, while the Australian dollar was off sharply at .9252.

The Canadian dollar was little changed at .9868.

U.S. stocks turn corner, Dow ends up 41, Nasdaq 13

Traders remained hesitant Wednesday, keeping U.S. indices on the defensive.

Stocks were mainly in the red most of the day, but turned up towards the close

The U.S. dollar meantime dived again.

At the end of trading the Dow Jones Industrials were down 41.90 points or 0.34% to 12,254.99.

The Nasdaq Composite was up 12.53 points or 0.55% at 2,272.81.

The Standard and Poor's 500 at 1,333.70 was up 6.95 points or 0.52%.

The euro rose to a new record high against the dollar at 1.5275. Around the New York close it was quoted at 1.5264.

The Swiss franc climbed to 1.0364, and sterling to 1.9910.

The Australian dollar moved up modestly to .9336, while the Canadian dollar, recovered from the Bank of Canada 50 basis points rate cut earlier this week. It was quoted at .9852.

The Japanese yen was a touch weaker at 104.04.

Foreign exchange traders have sold the already beleagured dollar off sharply, following a string of Fed rate cuts since September last year, which has seen official interest rates reduced from 5.25% to 3%. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has hinted rates will be cut further if conditions warrant it.

Fed Cuts Rate

The US markets came down after making initial rally after Fed Rate cut of .25 %
It wasn not a surprise as that the market pulled back, having suffered months of losses and having driven the Dow Jones industrials up more than 470 points so far this week ahead of the late-day downturn, The central bank's rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee trimmed the target for the federal funds rate, which banks charge one another for overnight loans, to 4.25% from 4.5%. The Fed has now cut that rate a full percentage point since it began its current round of reductions in September.
Dow Jones which had been up more than 200 points after the Fed's decision, finished down 37.47, or 0.30 percent, at 12,442.83