Britain and Europe
The London FTSE, Paris CAC and Frankfurt DAX continued their recoveries, bouncing back 2.2 percent, 4.1 percent and 3.1 percent, respectively, despite Friday's struggles with ominous news. With military action continuing in Afghanistan and the FBI warning of the potential for further terrorist attacks over the weekend, it proved to be a difficult day for markets to make further progress on Friday. This news compounded by an upcoming deluge of dismal third quarter earnings will surely test investors' mettle.

European markets continue to follow U.S. markets and wobbled after negative U.S. economic data took some of the steam out of Wall Street's rally. Earlier in the week the markets seemed becalmed in fairly narrow ranges as investors waited to assess the success of U.S. military attacks in Afghanistan, the possibility of terrorist attacks and the economic effects of the crisis. European economic data were mixed with German unemployment rising but industrial production gaining (see economic scoreboard below).

Asia
Tokyo stocks continued to rally finishing above 10,000 again after Wall Street bolstered Japanese technology issues by rising during the week. The benchmark Nikkei 225 jumped 4.2 percent to 10,632.35 on the week. Bank shares rose on the Financial Services Agency's decision to bring forward inspection of banks, which are burdened by large amounts of bad debt. In Japan, the indexes are about 2.8 percent above their September 11 levels. Hong Kong and Australia are within one percent.

Leading mainland Chinese stocks listed in Hong Kong have performed strongly since September 11 as the mainland is seen as a safe haven relative to the rest of the region. On Friday the market fell as investors took profits.

Introduction   •   Global Stock Market Indexes   •   Recap of Global Markets   •   Currencies   •  Indicator Scoreboard

The Bottom Line   •   Looking Ahead