| Dow 7925 |  | +174.75 | (+2.25%) |
| Nasdaq 1587 | | +58.05 | (+3.80%) |
| S&P 833 | | +18.98 | (+2.33%) |
Europe
| FTSE 100 3925 | | +24.95 | (+0.64%) |
| CAC 40 2892 |  | -1.38 | (-0.05%) |
| DAX 30 4259 | | +36.08 | (+0.85%) |
Asia at 9 30 AM
| Nikkei 225 8720 | | +83.68 | (+0.97%) |
| Hang Seng 14090 | | -18.87 | (-0.13%) |
Commodities
| Light Crude (NYM) | 54.34 | (+1.57) |
| Gold (CMX) | 942.20 | (+4.20) |
SGX Nifty 3075 +11 pts
News Today
* IBM's reported plans to lay off thousands of U.S. workers and outsource many of those jobs to India, even as the company angles for billions in stimulus money, doesn't sit well with employee rights advocates. full story
* Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner called for new rules Thursday that would allow regulators to police the darkest corners of the financial markets, including big hedge funds and derivatives trading.The U.S. also needs a single regulator to oversee the biggest financial firms, Geithner told the House Financial Services Committee in prepared testimony.
* France will ban bonuses and stock options for executives whose companies get government bailout money, the president's chief of staff said Thursday.
* Japan's core consumer price index manages to surprise analysts by posting a flat result and avoiding deflation, just barely.
* India's Inflation came at 30 year low of 0.27%.
* New Zealand Gross domestic product shrank 0.9 percent from a year earlier _ the biggest quarterly decline since 1992. The latest data from government body Statistics New Zealand confirmed the economy contracted each quarter of 2008 as the world financial crisis bit deeper.
* Billionaire Li Ka-shing, who predicted China’s stock-market bubble would burst in 2007, said the nation will lead a global economic
recovery and investors should consider buying shares and real estate.
