As I said earlier in the blog, Financial news will be closely watched by the investors.   Now that crude oil no longer pose much of a threat nor interest to investors, unless of course something bad happen in the likes of say Israel attacking Iran, I don’t think crude oil or other commodities will be in the horizon of a typical trader.   The buzz word now is Finance Finance Finance.  Lehman Brothers had given the investors a lot to worry about.   I guess the Fed will also need to rescue it if anything bad happens.   Now is more of a psychological game.  Can Lehman management convince the investors that they are on solid footing?

Secondly Wamu, one of the Best runned banks and also a classic MBA study case is now at 17 year low.   Who will be another Bear Sterns I wonder?   What will the Fed says when they use tax payers money to bail them out?  Or will they not bail them out?   Chances are more than if such a situation occur, Fed will intervene.   Freddy and Fannie already had Fed hands full, wonder how many banks can the Fed intervene in?   From the looks of it they require infinite financial resources to tide over this crisis.   Which is no wonder why investors are keeping their eyes focused on Finance companies and Banks.

The futures indicate another bad day again and Yahoo is now at $17.70, I wonder how the Yahoo investors are feeling now.

America and Britain have the most developed financial systems in the world, according to the World Economic Forum, a think-tank. Its inaugural Financial Development Report ranks 52 countries according to the strength of their financial markets, and the depth and breadth of access to capital and financial services. This wide-ranging index takes into account the quality of each country’s financial laws and regulations, its business environment, and the likelihood of a financial crisis, among other things. Rich countries scored well, whereas Latin America and Eastern Europe did poorly. Most countries had uneven performance: only Germany, America and Britain scored well across all categories.

...

The unemployment rate in America spiked from 5.7% to 6.1% in August, its highest level for five years. Employers, excluding farms, cut their payrolls by 84,000 in August. Existing-home sales that have been agreed on, but not yet finalised, fell by 3.2% in July, partly reversing a big rise in June.

China’s consumer-price inflation fell from 6.3% in July to 4.9% in August, helped by a smaller increase in food prices. Factory-gate inflation edged up from 10% to 10.1%. ...

Senior managers in the Middle East, Russia, and China are better paid than those working in the West, once their cost of living is taken into account, according to Hay Group, a consultancy. Its study compares managers’ disposable income in 51 countries, by calculating average salaries adjusted for taxes and living expenses. On that basis, managers in Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have twice the spending power of their counterparts in America, who rank only 41st in the survey. A shortage of talent in China and the Middle East has lifted wages. Managers in Eastern Europe have also enjoyed big gains in spending power. Executive pay in India has lagged behind that in other emerging economies.

...

I can’t imagine more extreme opposites than what Yahoo and Microsoft are thinking right now.   Yahoo not only retraced back the share prices prior to Microsoft takeover bid but even “bettered” it.

Microsoft had given Yahoo’s board three weeks to agree to its acquisition offer, initially valued at $44.6 billion.   Yahoo is nor valued at $25.06 billion as at Friday’s close.   Quite a big difference.   The Microsoft management must be thankful that the deal did not go through.   Yahoo broke $18 for quite a few sessions and I do not see its price going positive in such a bear market.

Australia's central bank cut its benchmark interest rate by 0.25 percentage points, to 7%. The bank reckons that past increases in rates, along with tighter credit conditions, had cooled the economy by enough to push inflation below 3% by 2010. GDP in Australia rose by 0.3% in the second quarter, less than half the first-quarter increase.

In America the Institute for Supply Management's manufacturing index edged down from 50 to 49.9 in August. ...