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By ELAINE KURTENBACH,AP Business Writer AP - Wednesday, March 18SHANGHAI - Asia's stock market rally seemed to be running out of steam Wednesday, despite an
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US, Europe snap back from heavy losses
AFP - 1 hour 24 minutes ago
NEW YORK (AFP) - - US and European shares rallied Tuesday a day after punishing losses as investors looked past the gloom that provoked Monday's rout, but analysts say the rally remains fragile.
Wall Street was lifted by hopes for an auto sector rescue by the US government and General Electric's better-than-expected business update while European bourses rose on a pledge by European Union ministers to implement economic stimulus measures.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rallied 270.00 points (3.31 percent) to close at 8,419.09, coming off a horrific 679-point loss on Monday.
The Nasdaq composite climbed 3.70 percent to 1,449.80 and the Standard & Poor's 500 added 3.99 percent to 848.81, after both fell more than eight percent on Monday.
Market action came as the Big Three Detroit automakers were pressing Congress for emergency loans of some 25 billion dollars to avert a potentially catastrophic collapse. General Motors, Ford and Chrysler presented their business plans outlining how they would restore profitability.
Colleen King at Schaeffer's Investment Research said driving the market gains was "auto bailout speculation," or anticipation that the Detroit firms will prevail in their request for government aid.
Gregory Drahuschak at Janney Montgomery Scott said GE was another big factor in the rally, noting that the US conglomerate reassured markets with its quarterly update.
Drahuschak said the nearly nine percent loss in the S&P 500 was due to "fear that GE's webcast today would include some significantly negative news."
But the markets snapped back, he said after the updated was "not as bad as feared."
GE said its fourth-quarter profit would be at the lower end of its forecast as it embarks on restructuring and other actions to cope with financial turmoil.
But despite the difficult economic environment, the company expects to earn more than 18 billion dollars in 2008, before restructuring and other charges, GE vice chairman Keith Sherin said.
John Wilson, equity strategist at Morgan Keegan, said the stock market may be able to sustain a rally even with the economy mired in recession.
"The market will begin to look through the trough well before we or the economists see it, so the fact that we are in a recession doesn't preclude the stock market forming a major low in here," he said in a note to clients.
He said one model "shows the S&P 500 over 70 percent undervalued (compared) to the 10-Year Treasury note."
European investors drew encouragement from news that finance ministers from all 27 European Union endorsed plans for a stimulus plan totaling 200 billion euros, equivalent to 1.5 percent of EU gross domestic product.
"Despite a lack of consensus amongst national governments, the European Commission's bailout package is giving hope to equity investors," said Kim Forkes at Economy.com.
In London, the FTSE 100 index of leading shares closed 1.41 percent higher at 4,122.86. In Paris, the CAC 40 was up 2.35 percent at 3,152.90 and in Frankfurt the DAX jumped 3.12 percent to 4,531.79.
Forkes said European markets "were also buoyed by hopes of deep monetary policy rate cuts by the European Central Bank and the Bank of England." Both were due to meet on Thursday.
In other markets, Asian bourses fell in the wake of Wall Street's plunge Monday. But Brazil's Bovespa rose 0.75 percent and the Mexican Bolsa index added 1.38 percent. Canada's S&P/TSX fell 0.93 percent.
Volatile trading conditions showed no signs of abating.
"As we are in the midst of the largest market fall since the Great Depression, it's an understatement that the outlook is extremely uncertain," said European equity strategists at JP Morgan.
Investors are looking to central banks this week for the latest round of action to combat the worst financial crisis since the 1930s which is threatening to plunge the global economy into recession.
Official data showed Tuesday that eurozone producer prices fell at their sharpest rate on record in October following another big drop in energy costs, raising the odds of a large interest rate cut for the eurozone on Thursday.
Analysts say the cut in the benchmark rate by the European Central Bank could be between 0.50 and 0.75 percentage points from its current 3.25 percent.
Traders were anticipating a big cut to British borrowing costs when the Bank of England policymakers meet on Thursday.
A steep interest rate cut by Australia's central bank on Tuesday and fresh steps by Japan to tackle the credit crunch failed to soothe investor fears across Asia.
Tokyo closed down 6.35 percent on Tuesday, Hong Kong slid 5.0 percent, Seoul shed 3.3 percent and Sydney dropped 4.2.
Australia's central bank slashed interest rates by 100 basis points -- a larger cut than expected that dropped the official cash rate to 4.25 percent, its lowest level in more than six years.
But the rate cut "didn't do anything to boost the market," said CommSec market analyst Juliette Saly.
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