International Report

The FTSEurofirst 300 shares rose 0.8 percent to close at 1,035.56 points. The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 0.09%, to close at 10,396.76. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rose up 0.04%, to close at 1,118.79. The Nasdaq Composite Index fell 0.11 points to close at 2,280.68. The Nikkei rose 31.30 points to close at 10,253.14, while the Topix added 0.3% to close at 905.65.

Yesterday, the Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou warned that he would go to the International Monetary Fund for support if the EU did not provide the financial assistance he needed. This threat came on the back of fresh spending cuts, which are the country’s toughest in decades. It is expected that these new measures will raise €4.8bn (£4.3bn) after the Greek government stated it would increase VAT by 2% to 21%, would reduce the civil servant annual bonuses by 30% and place a freeze on state pensions. There have also been talks of imposing higher taxes on alcohol, tobacco, luxury cars and yachts.

Due for release today is the GBP Halifax HPI m/m, GBP Asset Purchase Facility, GBP MPC Rate Statement, GBP Official Bank Rate, EUR Minimum Bid Rate, CAD Building Permits m/m, EUR ECB Press Conference, USD Unemployment claims, CAD Ivey PMI and USD Pending Home Sales m/m.

by Greg Secker

This entry was posted on March 4, 2010 at 11:38 am. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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