The passage of economic stimulus package failed to cheer European markets but Asian markets managed to make a rebound. By noon in Europe, Britain's FTSE 100 plunged 2.1 percent to 4,206.20, Germany's DAX dived 1.2 percent to 4,464.26, and France's CAC 40 slumped 1.3 percent to 3,034.77. Banks took most of the points off the indexes after a strong rally Wednesday. “The US stimulus package has a positive psychological impact on markets globally,” said Castor Pang, an analyst at Sun Hung Kai Financial in Hong Kong. Hong Kong jumped, 575.83 points to to 13,154.43 or 4.6 percent in a catch-up rally. Japan's Nikkei 225 stock average rose 144.95 points, or 1.8 percent, to 8,251.24, even as new data showed that retail sales in the world's second-largest economy sank the most in nearly four years in December. China's markets are closed all week. South Korea's Kospi gained 0.7 percent and Australia's main index rose 0.9 percent. The Dow Jones industrial average was down 227 points at the 8,148 level at the close of trading. The Standard and amp; Poor's 500 index fell nearly 29 to 845, and the Nasdaq composite index fell 50 to 1,507. Losing stocks outnumbered gainers by 5 to 1 on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume came to 1.42 billion shares. The pullback is not entirely surprising after the S and P 500's first four-day advance since November. On Wednesday, stocks had soared on hopes that the government will take bad debt off banks' books. Stephen Pope, chief global markets strategist for Cantor Fitzgerald said “many of the sectors that were leading the markets higher yesterday, i.e. the banks and financial services, are on their way back. This isn't necessarily a bad bank bounce - the first half of this year is going to be characterized by short-term trading strategy.”
