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Foreign Markets

Asian markets plummeted after the United States, the world’s largest economy, fell into a recession in December of 2007. The MSCI Asia Pacific index dropped 4.2%; Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average tumbled 533.53 points, or 6.4%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index lost 5%. In Europe, markets were calmer; the FTSE 100 index was even at 4,065.68 while the Germany’s DAX advanced 1.2%. Will the reversal in Europe translate into the domestic market?

U.S. Futures

Wall Street looks to rebound after yesterday’s massive selloff. Futures are up across the board. The Dow is advancing up 124 points, or 1.5% to 8,263 The S&P 500, which lost 8.93% Monday, was up 14.10 points, or 1.7% at 829.90. Will we still experience a year end rally, or is reality too much?

Currencies and Commodities

The dollar dropped 0.1% against the yen to 93 and lost 0.1% against the euro to $1.2621. Oil, after falling over 9% on Monday stayed below $50 even as futures rose. Gold stayed steady at $777 an ounce while we continue to see a massive flee towards treasuries for safety.

Corporate News

JPMorgan Chase (JPM: Summary, Messages, Articles) will cut a total of 9,200 jobs at Washington Mutual, which it acquired Sept. 25 after Washington Mutual became the nation’s largest bank to fail amid the ongoing credit crisis.

Sears reported a 3rd quarter loss of $146 million, or $1.16 per share, compared with year-ago profit of $4 million, or 3 cents per share. Revenue dropped 8% to $10.66 billion from $11.62 billion; analysts had expected a loss of only of 49 cents per share with higher revenue of $10.93 billion.

Staples (SPLS: Summary, Messages, Articles) reported third-quarter profit dropped 43 percent, earning $156.7 million, or 22 cents per share, in the three months ended Nov. 1. That’s down from $274.5 million, or 38 cents per share, a year ago.

Economic News

7:45 AM ICSC-Goldman Store Sales: Weekly measure of comparable store sales at major retail chains, published by the International Council of Shopping Centers. The figure accounts for roughly 10% of total retail sales.