NEW YORK - WALL Street stocks dropped from 12-year lows at the opening on Monday on heightened financial woes after a new bailout announced for insurance giant AIG.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average slid below 7,000 points for the first time since 1997, tumbling 137.87 points (1.95 per cent) to 6,925.06 in the first exchanges.
WASHINGTON - THE US government on Monday unveiled a fresh aid plan of US$30 billion for AIG to stave off collapse of the ailing insurance company as it revealed massive new losses.
American International Group (AIG) announced a fourth quarter loss of US$61.7 billion (S$95.8 billion), pushing up its net loss for 2008 to US$99.3 billion.
BEIJING - AFTER days of frenzied media speculation, a Chinese art collector has surfaced to claim he was the mystery man who won the bid for two controversial Qing dynasty animal bronze sculptures auctioned off in Paris last week.
The bronzes, part of the art collection of late French fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent and his partner Pierre Berge, sold for 15.7 million euros (S$31.5 million) each at the Christie's auction in Paris. Authorities in Beijing had repeatedly demanded the sale not go ahead, and that the relics be returned to China.
TOKYO - PLUNGING Japanese car sales and a record drop in South Korea's industrial output underlined the ravaging impact of the global financial crisis on Monday, as concerns pummelled stocks.
Fears over the health of the banking sector also grew after HSBC reported a 70 per cent fall in annual net profit as bad debts surged, and said it planned to raise almost US$18 billion (S$38.8 billion) by issuing new shares.
