US, European markets see declines

Equities markets in the Asia and Pacific region were mixed on Wednesday. Both the Sensex in India and the Sydney Ordinaries in Australia dropped 0.05 percent on the session, to 13,183.24 and 6,136.1 respectively. The Straits Times index in Singapore was 0.16 percent higher to 3,420.62, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong added 0.5 percent to 20,449.43.

In Tokyo, the equities markets ended the session higher, but not by much. The Nikkei 225 was up just 0.03 percent to 17,670.07, while the Topix index gained 0.19 percent to 1,739.01. On reports that machinery orders were down more than had been expected in February, robot maker Fanuc and Kawasaki Heavy (TYO: 7012) were both lower on the session. In the electronics sector Matsushita Electric Industrial (TYO: 6752; NYSE: MC), maker of the Panasonic brand, also declined. Banks were lower after the Bank of Japan reported that loan growth was slowing. While Mitsubish UFJ (TYO: 8306; NYSE: MTU) and SMFG (TYO: 8316) each held steady, Shinsei Bank (TYO: 8303) declined on the announcement that it will post a loss for the fiscal year just ended. There were a few gainers, including Japan Airlines (TYO: 9205), broker Nikko Cordial (TYO: 8603; SGX: N06), and East Japan Railway (TYO: 9202). The Nikko Cordial gain took its share price just above the most recent bid by Citigroup (NYSE: C).

European markets turned lower on the session. The FTSE Eurofirst 300 was 0.07 percent lower to 1,547.24, while the Xetra Dax was down 0.19 percent in Frankfurt, to 7,152.83 and in Paris the CAC-40 dropped 0.25 percent to 5,751.92. Despite the declines, the European oil sector finished the session higher. Puma (OTC: PMMA) ended €20 higher than a bid from PPR (Euronext: PP), sent higher by investors hopes that someone will offer a counter bid. Rival sportswear maker Adidas (OTC: ADDYY) also made gains on the day.

In London, both the FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 saw declines. The 100 dropped 0.07 percent to 6,413.3, while the 250 was 0.3 percent lower to 11,955.30. The UK real estate sector was lower after broker downgrades to several companies. However, as with oil companies based on the continent, UK oil companies saw gains on the session.

Down a bit at midday, Wall Street dropped even further in afternoon trading after the minutes of the most recent meeting of the Federal Reserve were released. The minutes included comments that indicated that new interest rate hikes could be coming soon in an attempt to slow inflation. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was 0.75 percent lower to 12,479.26, while the Nasdaq Composite had dropped 0.77 percent to 2,458.48 and the S&P 500 was down 0.61 percent to 1,439.51. Earlier in the session, Citigroup (NYSE: C) was lower on the news that it will cut 5 percent of its staff, a total of 17,000 jobs, as it tries to cut costs and raise the price of its shares. Alcoa (NYSE: AA) saw gains after it reported that net profits were up by 9 percent in the first quarter. Alcoa has had the best performance of any company on the Dow so far this year.

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