Asian market preview 18/03/2008

US markets ended the turbulent session mixed overnight after Fed's move to cut discount rate by 0.25% and after JP Morgan struck a deal to buy Bear Stearns at $2 a share or a tenth of its market value. Most stocks fell, led by financial companies as investors punished them, thinking that they are overvalued after the Bear Stearns' collapse. JP Morgan led the gains in Wall St as it surged 10% after its acquisition of Bear Stearns. The Fed is now expected to cut 100 bps at their meeting on Tuesday night. Gold and oil dropped from its record highs and led the oil and metal companies lower. The Dow gained 21.16 or 0.18% to 11972.25 after plunging 200 pts and rising more than 100 pts, S&P500 fell 11.54 pts or 0.90% to 1276.60 while Nasdaq fell 35.48 pts or 1.60% to 2177.01.

Asian markets may open flat today with a lot of volatilities to be expected today. Markets may rebound from yesterday's heavy losses on The Fed's prospect of a rate cut later on tonight. However, with banks and financial sectors was heavily battered overnight in Wall St, it is also possible that markets may go down further. Oil and mining companies may drop today after oil dropped more than $4, gold fell from its highest and copper drop the most on concerns that global demand is cooling. Crude oil was recently traded around $106ish per barrel, gold traded around $10002ish and JPY traded around 97.50ish. Nikkei futures closed at 11860 compared to the close of 11630 here yesterday.

The Kospi may open slightly higher today as a technical rebound is expected to happen today after heavy losses for the past few sessions. However, a lot of negative factors are still in the market today and it may cause high volatilities in the market as investors are trying to find something solid to hold onto.

Hangseng may get a rebound today after losing more than 5% yesterday. Oil and mining companies may drop today with the decline of their prices overnight. High volatilities may be expected today with bargain hunters may start kicking in but in reality, weak markets globally may still dominate the Hangseng market. The Fed is going to hold a meeting tonight and will announce its rate decision and that may be some driver for the market if investors are feeling slightly optimistic of what The Fed may offer.