Melt down fears grip Tokyo Stock Exchange
Tokyo: Global financial markets took some deep breaths after the Tokyo Stock Exchange abruptly cut short operations on Wednesday, faced by a surge in sale orders which threatened to overwhelm the computer system of the world's second-largest financial market.

The shutdown was the Japanese markets first in nearly 60 years. When trading resumed Thursday in Tokyo, stocks rose higher in the first few minutes of trading as bargain hunters picked up shares that had been beaten down in recent days. The Nikkei ended down 464.77 points, or nearly three per cent at 15,341.18.

The sell-off and the disruption in trading had its effect around the world as financial markets in Europe and the United States went lower. The Dow Jones industrial average ended down 41.46 points, to 10, 854.86.

Japanese exchange officials halted stock and bond trading after news that a Japanese Internet company was being investigated triggered a wave of sell orders, according to news services.

The spike in trading was triggered by investors trying to unload shares of Livedoor Co., an Internet company whose offices were raided by investigators probing allegations of illegal stock price manipulation.

Livedoor's founder, 33-year-old Takafumi Horie, has in the last decade built Livedoor into a US$6.3bn collection of about 50 online companies that sell a wide variety of products ranging from stocks to rock concert tickets and used cars. The government has filed no charges, and Horie has declared his innocence.

A series of problems have plagued the exchange in recent months and have undermined its reputation, even as the country's financial markets have been staging a dramatic turnaround last year.
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Wall Street tumbles along with Tokyo
New York: US stocks are jittery after speculation that disappointing earnings from technology companies such as Intel Corp and Yahoo Inc could likely indicate a fall in US corporate profit growth.

Intel, the world's largest chipmaker, tumbled nearly 12 per cent and was responsible for the sag on the Dow, the Nasdaq and the Standard & Poor's 500 stock gauges. Energy companies fared no better with Exxon Mobil Corp shedding about 2 per cent amid escalating threats against oil producers in Nigeria.

The Dow Jones industrial average was down 47.71 points at 10,848.61 and the Standard & Poor's 500 Index slipped 4.87 points to 1,278.06. The Nasdaq Composite Index fell 21.37 points at 2,281.32.

Britain's top share index, the FTSE 100, was dragged down by rising oil prices and a slump in Tokyo shares, as a court ruling caused shares of drug maker AstraZeneca to fall. The FTSE 100 index ended down 35.3 points, or 0.6 percent, at 5,663.7. The DAX index ended at 5395.61 points, down 64.55 or 1.18 percent. The CAC-40 index closed at 4772.09 points, down 35.05 or 0.73 percent. Hong Kong stocks ended 0.61 percent lower, with the blue chip Hang Seng index ending 94.99 points lower at 15,481.21 points.
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United Airlines all set to shed bankruptcy status
Chicago: United Airlines may be at the edge of shedding its bankrupt status, even as it won court approval for its controversial management stock plan and resolved differences with its flight attendants' union.

With all remaining objections to the plan settled or overruled at a daylong confirmation hearing, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Eugene Wedoff said he expects to formally sign off on the company's reorganization plan Friday.

The anticipated ruling on Friday, will remove the final obstacle to the targeted Feb. 1 exit from bankruptcy for United and parent UAL Corp. after a more than three-year restructuring exercise. UALs has been the largest and longest airline bankruptcy ever.

The confirmation hearing represented a last chance for unions and others to air their protests and was scheduled to last as long as three days. But the UAL cruised through the proceedings in about six hours of courtroom time with only muted resistance from union representatives.

Ending a yearlong pension battle, United and its flight attendants announced a tentative agreement on a replacement pension plan and said the union had agreed to drop its legal action over the company's termination of defined-benefit pensions.

The Association of Flight Attendants, which has bitterly fought United over the elimination of defined benefit employee-pension plans, had been expected to excoriate the company in the courtroom. But the union agreed to the defined-contribution retirement plan instead and did not testify against the stock plan.

The union's retirement plan would include a 3 percent company match and a 2 percent direct contribution, both effective Jan. 1 of this year. The direct contributions would increase a half-percent in 2007 and again in 2008 for a total of 6 percent, the union said.
The company announced a new UAL board of directors that includes seven holdovers from the existing board and five new members chosen by the committee of unsecured creditors.
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