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Stocks Fluctuate Amid Continued Credit Market Concerns Stocks fluctuated in a seesaw session as concerns about tightening credit markets weighed on buying attempts. "The volatility is not unusual given the history of the market, but it's certainly frightening for those who have only been around the market a couple of years," said John Buckingham, chief portfolio manager at Al Frank Asset Management. "I view it as a long-term buying opportunity even as I concede stocks could go lower from here." Six of the ten S&P 500 sectors were trading higher. The battered down financials sector moved back and forth following an upgrade for Merrill Lynch. Health care and consumer staples were the best performing sectors. Energy was the worst performer, dragged down by lower oil prices. "I think we're in store for another volatile day," Mike Malone, equity sales and trading analyst at Cowen & Company, told CNBC.com. "The market has not been able to hold on to intial gains I think, in part, to ongoing fears with the credit market." "I think we're probably in a near-term pattern of buy them early in the week and sell them late in the week," said Stephen Sachs, director of trading at Rydex Investments. "I think this week is going to be a great example of that. If nothing else, you have to get use to the intraday volatility that we've seen over the last couple of weeks."
Investors were also mindful of the upcoming interest rate decision and statement from the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee tomorrow. "They think they've got the Fed kind of boxed in with all this volatility," said Arthur Cashin, UBS director of floor operations. "There are hopes out there that the Fed may actually try to do something to calm things down." Merrill Lynch 71.64 1.59 +2.27% UBS also upgraded shares of online financial services company TD Ameritrade 16.04 0.05 +0.31% American Home Mortgage 0.44 -0.255 -36.69% Bear Stearns 103.72 -4.63 -4.27% Chrysler also underwent an executive shake-up, as its new owner Cerberus Capital Management announced former Home Depot 36.44 0.25 +0.69% Also in corporate news, auto parts maker Delphi cleared a hurdle to emerging from bankruptcy, ending a strike and tentatively agreeing to a four-year contract with employees in the Communications Workers union. New York light sweet crude futures 73.16 -2.32 -3.07% European Stocks Mixed European stocks started the week with a mixed performance Monday as continued fallout from the U.S. subprime mortgage sector prompted a move to less risky investments. "Investors (are) running away from risk, essentially, and that is strongly benefiting the bond market," John Wraith, Head of Rates Strategy at Royal Bank of Scotland, told "Squawk Box Europe." The London FTSE-100 6189.1 -35.20 -0.57% 7444.45 8.78 +0.12% 5532.99 -64.90 -1.16% Looking to individual companies, Munich Re shook off the market malaise, with shares gaining, as the company boosted its full-year profit target. And IKB's biggest shareholder has played down reports the German lender could lose more than the 3.5 billion euros ($4.8 billion) due to U.S. subprime exposure, Reuters reported. In the U.K., ICI tentatively agreed to a sweetened 8 billion pound ($16.3 billion) takeover offer by Dutch rival Akzo Nobel and a German partner, the Wall Street Journal reported Sunday. And the ongoing battle for ABN Amro was in focus as Barclays formally launched its 65 billion euro ($89 billion) bid for the Dutch bank. Belgian bank Fortis, which forms part of a rival offer with Royal Bank of Scotland and Santander received shareholder approval to fund its portion of the consortium's $97 billion offer. 95.5% of holders voted in favor of the bid at the first of two extraordinary general meetings. Asian Stocks Mostly Lower Asian stocks continued to be beaten down in the afternoon session Monday with markets hit by global credit jitters. Australia, Japan and South Korea all closed lower. Data last Friday showing U.S. employers added jobs at the slowest rate in five months and weaker growth in the U.S. service sector all added to concerns about the world's biggest economy, Asia's top export destination. Bear Stearns also rattled investors with comments that credit markets were in their worst shape in two decades. Tokyo's Nikkei 225 Average 16914.46 -65.40 -0.39% South Korea shares extended a recent slide to fall 1.2%, as financials such as Kookmin Bank Australian shares finished 1.4% lower after fresh signs of weakness in global credit markets Hong Kong stocks plunged with the Hang Seng Index falling below the key 22,000 support level. Finance stocks were hit especially hard, after sharp declines on Wall Street revealed growing concerns about the U.S. credit market. Singapore's Straits Times Index fell 3.7% in its sharpest one-day decline in five months, as banks were hit by credit market concerns triggered in the U.S. DBS Group, Southeast Asia's top lender, plunged over 5%, United Overseas Bank dropped as much as 6.2% and Oversea-Chinese Banking fell over 4%. But bucking the regional trend, China's Shanghai Composite Index surged more than 1.5% to a fresh record high, as investors once again largely ignored weakness in global share markets due to the U.S. subprime mortgage squeeze. China remains largely immune from global contagion because foreign investment is a tiny fraction of market capitalization, and since Chinese banks CLICK ON THE BANNER TO
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