Asian market preview 05/03/2008

US markets ended the session lower overnight but it managed to get off its lowest points of the day. Financial and commodity shares led the drop after Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke urged banks to forgive more late loans and oil and gold prices dropped from records. Earlier, Bernanke warned in a Florida speech that housing slump may deepen and that sent the stocks plunging with Dow went as low as -226 points. Stocks rebounded in the last hour however, on bargain hunting and also after CNBC said that a deal to bail out bond insurer Ambac Inc. is progressing. Citigroup, falling to 9-year low led the financial shares lower while ConocoPhilips and Freeport-McMoran led a retreat in energy and mining shares. Dow fell 45.10 pts or 0.37% to 12213.80, S&P500 fell 4.59 pts or 0.34% to 1326.75 while Nasdaq rose 1.68 pts or 0.07% to 2260.28.

Asian markets may open rather flat today following the slight decline in Wall St. Markets may try to get a rebound today after getting beaten quite badly for 2 straight days. Energy and mining shares may have a retreat today but bargain hunters may come in and look for cheap stocks to collect. Crude oil fell more than $3 and was recently traded around $99.20ish, gold was recently traded around $964ish and JPY traded around 103.40ish. Nikkei futures was closed at 12915 in CME compared to the close of 12980 in Osaka and 12860 in Singapore yesterday.

Kospi may open lower today around 211ish following the tumble in US markets as more concerns regarding the subprime mortgage crisis keep coming out of the banks. Bargain hunters may dip in today though and this may cause good volatility for the market and may prove useful to us.

Hangseng may open higher today around 23050ish and may even go higher still if bargain hunters decide to come in and start collecting cheap shares. Oil and commodity shares may take a breather today as prices drop overnight in the US. Volatility in the market maybe high today and it's good for us daytraders.