Dubai debt fears remain focus in world markets

By PAN PYLAS

posted: 26 MINUTES AGO

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LONDON -European stock markets regained their poise Friday on hopes Wall Street would not be hit as hard as Asia by the news Dubai is having trouble handling its debt.

In Europe, the FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was up 18.79 points, or 0.4 percent, at 5,212.92 while Germany's DAX rose 25.33 points, or 0.5 percent, at 5,639.50. The CAC-40 in France was 23.89 points, or 0.7 percent, higher at 3,703.12.

European stocks had been trading modestly lower earlier following Thursday's 3 percent losses as confidence was ravaged by Wednesday's news that Dubai World, a government investment company with around $60 billion worth of debt, has asked creditors if it can postpone forthcoming payments until May.

That stoked fears, mainly in Europe on Thursday, of a potential default and contagion around the global financial system, particularly in emerging markets.

Indexes in emerging markets have so far avoided a second day of heavy losses, with Russia and Brazil down about 1 percent, although Asian markets lost as much as 5 percent.

Wall Street was not expected to plunge as sharply. Shortly before the U.S. open, Dow futures were trading 198 points, or 1.9 percent, lower at 10,244, while the broader Standard & Poor's 500 futures fell 26.30, or 2.4 percent, at 1,082.60.

"Once it became clear that The Street of Dreams was not necessarily going to resemble Gettysburg in 1863, European equities regained some poise," said David Buik, markets analyst at BGC Partners.

Nevertheless, analysts said more clarity about the long-term impact of Dubai's troubles would likely emerge next week, when Wall Street is back to normal trading hours following the Thanksgiving Day holiday.

"With U.S. markets only open for half a day today, we are going to have to wait till early next week to see if stock markets view this as a little local difficulty, or something more serious," said Tim Hughes, head of sales trading at IG Index.

Investors were also keeping a close eye on associated developments in the currency markets after the dollar slid to a new 14-year low of 84.81 yen.

However, the dollar climbed back off its lows to 86.54 yen amid mounting expectations that the Bank of Japan may intervene in the markets by buying dollars or selling yen after Japan's finance minister Hirohisa Fujii said he was "extremely nervous" about the movements in the yen and that the "market had moved too far in one direction."

On Thursday, the Swiss National Bank reportedly intervened to buy dollars to prevent the export-sapping appreciation of the Swiss franc. That seems to have worked — for now, at least — as the dollar has moved back above parity, trading 0.9 percent higher at 1.0118 Swiss francs.

The British pound has also been battered amid fears about the exposure of Britain's banks to the region. The pound was down 0.8 percent at $1.6391.

Another currency losing some of its shine was the euro, which fell 0.8 percent to $1.4903 — in times of uncertainty the dollar is considered to be more of a safe haven currency. Investors are also concerned about the exposure of European banks to Dubai.

Earlier, Asian stocks were particularly badly hit as they played catch-up following the big losses in Europe in the previous session. Hong Kong's Hang Seng closed 1,075.91 points, or 4.8 percent, lower at 21,134.50, while South Korea's benchmark plummeted 4.7 percent to 1,524.50.

Elsewhere in Asia, Japan's Nikkei 225 stock average fell 3.2 percent to 9,081.52 while Australia's index dropped 2.9 percent. China's main Shanghai stock measure was off 2.4 percent.

Oil, meanwhile, tracked developments in stock markets and benchmark crude for January delivery fell $3.49 to $74.47 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

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AP Business Writer Jeremiah Marquez in Hong Kong contributed to this report.

2009-11-27 09:17:49