Wall Street slides; Indian ADRs go along with it
Mumbai: The Wall Street yesterday tumbled on worries about slackening US consumer spending. The Dow Jones industrial average went down 184 points to 11,094. The Nasdaq plunged 46 points to 2,165.

Indian ADRs, barring Patni Computers (up 1.3% at $15.72) witnessed a free fall, with VSNL tumbling 9.6% to $17.09 and Tata Motors, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Dr.Reddy's and MTNL dropping 4-7% each.
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Morning trades: Asian markets reel in Wall Street tailwind
Major Asian markets reeled in the wake of Wall Street's Tuesday tumble, as renewed fears of inflation and higher interest rates along with surging crude oil prices set the bears on the prowl.

Singapore's Straits Times index was down more than 2%, while the Nikkei dropped more than 1.5%.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 184.18 points, or 1.63%, from last Friday to 11,094.43. The tech-laden Nasdaq Composite Index fell 45.63 points, or 2.06%, to 2,164.74. The broad-market Standard & Poor's 500 index slumped 1.59%, or 20.32 points, to 1,259.84.

New Zealand markets experienced across the board selling, with the benchmark NZSX 50 index slipped 16.790 points, or 0.46%, to 3,600.245. The NZSX All Capital index dropped 4.01 points, or 0.39%, at 1,034.97.

In Sydney the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index fell 70.7 points, or 1.38%, to 5,034.7, while the All-Ordinaries gave away 67.6 points, or 1.33%, to 4,999.2.

China's Shanghai Composite index dropped 2.448 points, or 0.15%, to 1,654.84. Malaysia's KLSE Composite fell 6.43 points, or 0.69%, to 923.46.
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Goldman Sachs chief, Henry Paulson Jr., to replace John Snow at the US Treasury
New York/Washington: Presidnt Bush has announced that Henry Paulson Jr., currently running finance powerhouse Goldman Sachs, will be the new Treasury secretary, in place of the outgoing secretary, John Snow.

Paulson has a tough job ahead, in trying to lift public sentiment that polls show is distinctly negative about the economy. Abroad, he will have to convince the world's investors that they should continue to finance the swollen US budget and trade deficit.

In his second term, Bush has to get rid of a public perception that strong economic data doesn't actually reflect the state of the economy. Recent polling by Gallup shows that investor optimism remains at its lowest point since last November.

Paulson follows another chairman of Goldman Sachs into the job. Robert Rubin was Treasury chief under president Clinton, and also a former chairman of Goldman Sachs.
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EU court bars giving passenger data to U.S.
Paris: The European Court of Justice, the European Union's highest court on Tuesday overturned an agreement that provides Washington with personal data on air passengers flying to the United States from Europe.

The European Court of Justice gave the European Commission four months to formulate a new agreement with the United States. Until then, current procedures remain in effect.

The Luxembourg-based court found that the commission and the European Council lacked an adequate legal basis for the agreement they reached in May 2004.

Specifically, the court ruled that because the information contained in passenger records is collected by airlines for their own commercial use, the European Union could not legally agree to provide that data to the U.S. authorities even for purposes of public security or law enforcement.

European airlines flying passengers in and out of the U.S. are now faced with a dilemma. Either the airlines violate EU law and provide U.S. authorities with the information they want, or risk U.S. authorities banning their flights into the country.

The 2004 agreement, gave the U.S. counter-terrorism authorities access to 34 categories of information about passengers on all flights that originate from the 25 member states.

The European Parliament challenged the agreement on two points: first, that it had not been consulted when the accord was reached amid intense pressure from the Bush administration after the Sept. 11 terror attacks; it also objected to the extent of personal data being turned over - including names, addresses, phone numbers, itineraries and all forms of payment information.
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