Wall Street Opens Higher a Day After Heavy Selling

NEW YORK (AP) - Stocks are opening higher after IBM Corp. reaffirmed its profit forecast and investors hoped the government might take ownership stakes in banks to help stabilize the financial industry.

Wall Street is looking to recover Thursday from near-panic selling that has cascaded through global markets in the past week.

The Dow Jones industrials are up 140 points at the 9,394 level in early trading.

Commercial paper outstanding drops again

NEW YORK (AP) - The Federal Reserve says the amount of commercial paper in the market has dropped for the fourth straight week.

Commercial paper is unsecured debt that companies issue to get short-term cash.

Commercial paper outstanding fell by $56.4 billion to a seasonally-adjusted $1.55 trillion in the week ended Oct. 8, the Fed says. That drop is smaller, however, than the $94.9 billion decline in the previous week, and the $61 billion decrease in the week ended Sept. 24.

Declines occurred in financial companies’ commercial paper and asset-backed commercial paper. Commercial paper issued by non-financial companies edged higher.

On Tuesday, the Fed said it would buy commercial paper to ease the tightness in that market.

European markets recover lost ground

LONDON (AP) - European investor jitters appear to have been calmed somewhat by a coordinated intervention on interest rates by central banks around the world.

Following on a relatively steady stock performance in Asia, European markets today recovered some of yesterday’s hefty losses.

British banking stocks in particular enjoyed a strong rally in the wake of the government’s 865 billion dollars rescue plan.

No one in the markets though is willing to call an end to the turmoil that has gripped stock markets over the last few days. That probably won’t happen until banks start lending to each other and money market rates decline and spreads narrow.

Asian markets were mixed today. Investor enthusiasm over rate cuts was tempered by ongoing fears about the credit crunch and the prospect of a deep global recession, which would hit Asian exporters hard.
   
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