Asian Markets Snap A Four-Day Rally

Asian trade: After last week the global markets had the strongest gains seen in the last few years, now the Asian shares opened the new trading session in the red, on concerns the recession might be deeper than previously thought.

The Japanese market turned into the red for the first time in the last four days, after another huge company filed for bankruptcy protection in Japan. Also in Japan, the finance minister said a stimulus package would do little for the economy. Pretty much, this was the main cause of the rally seen in the last few days, investors putting their hopes on a bailout package. Tonight, the Nikkei fell 166.44 points (1.96%) to 8,345.83, while the Australian S&P/Asx slipped 21.20 points (0.57%) to 3,721.3.

In the U.S., reports after the infamous Black Friday show that retail sales had grown by a weak 3%, the smallest gain seen in the last year. Black Friday is the unofficial open of the holiday shopping season. This period is usually a very good gauge of the retail activity, since a large percentage of the industry’s profit comes from this period. A bad holiday shopping season may equal bankruptcy for some retailers, in the current conditions.

Crude oil keeps trading within the same small range, despite the strong volatility seen at the end of the last week. Crude oil for December delivery gained $0.10 to $53.20.

Gold declined in the first minutes after the opening bell. Bullion for immediate delivery fell $4.30 to $811.90.

Previous Wall Street trade: Stocks closed the shortened session higher for a fifth day on speculation Black Friday, the traditional start of holiday shopping season, will surprise to the upside. Meanwhile, the dollar advanced against the euro, pound, yen, Australian and Canadian dollars along with the Swiss franc.

Macy’s CEO Terry Lundgren said that Black Friday is turning out better than he anticipated. “I was expecting that today would start off weaker than last year,” Mr. Lundgren said. “But so far, that’s not the case.”
 
More than 5,000 people were lined up outside Macy’s Herald Square at 5:00 am this morning waiting to get in on the retailer’s 200 door-buster specials. Last year, Mr. Lundgren said, there were fewer people queued up outside, and only 25 door-buster specials. Still, the fear retailers have is that shoppers will grab the door-busters and little of anything else.

Previous European trade: In Europe, the U.K. Ftse gained 17.15 points (0.41%) 4,243.25, while the German Dax rose 22.93 points (0.49%) to 4,688.20.