Another mid-week panic by Merill Lynch report.

Merrill Lynch & Co., the U.S. securities firm that pushed into subprime lending last year, will add about $2.5 billion of writedowns to the $5 billion it disclosed earlier this month, the New York Times reported.

Merrill, the third-biggest securities firm, is the only one of Wall Street's five largest to report a loss from the credit contraction. Investor flight from subprime mortgage bonds and related debt left the company with inventories of loans and securities that had to be written down to depressed market prices.

``The news report on Merrill Lynch caused risk reduction, triggering stock sales and the unwinding of the yen carry trade

In carry trades, investors get funds in a country with low borrowing costs and invest in one with higher interest rates, earning the spread between the borrowing and lending rate. The risk is that currency moves erase those profits.

Japan's interest rate of 0.5 percent is the lowest among major economies and compares with a key rate of 8.25 percent in New Zealand and 5.75 percent in the U.K. South Africa's borrowing costs are 10.5 percent.

Yuan Advances Past 7.5 for First Time Since End of Dollar Link

Jim Rogers, chairman of Beeland Interests Inc. and a former partner of George Soros, said yesterday the yuan may quadruple in the next decade.
The yuan is ``the best currency to buy right now,'' Rogers told investors in Amsterdam, adding that he is shifting all his assets out of the dollar and into yuan. China is ``going to be the most important country in the 21st century.''

U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said a call for faster yuan gains was the ``biggest change'' in the communique after the G-7 met in Washington on Oct. 19.

China should allow the yuan to rise faster in the short term, and let markets set the currency's value in the medium term. China must also become less reliant on exports and heavy industry, he said in a conference speech in Washington.

Premier Wen Jiabao said in September that China's top priority was to prevent the economy from overheating. Consumer prices rose 6.5 percent in August from a year earlier, twice the central bank's target. The nation has built up $1.4 trillion in foreign-exchange reserves while managing its currency to keep exports competitive.

Tracking the Dow Movement on Tuesday 23/10/2007

Overnight spillover of bulls lasted for about an hour of trading before it was wipe-off totally again by 11:15am.Seems that profit-taking has been a norm at this time of hour for the DJIA where the currency market also react in tandem with it.

At the close noticed a doji-star spinning on top of the bulls head!It might have a hangover and drop immobilised tomorrow.Just a little bit of migraine and headache.Should be able to be back on its footing again after swallowing its bitter pill.

well,these pair of double white candlesticks looks promising for a bullish market but I don't quite like the long shadows(tail) of both the candlestick.They can be depicted as "hammers" & "hangman" So I predict we are going to have a rough ride through the market square these few days.But the bulls are still holding to its horns.

This Day in History, October 24
On October 24th, 1929, "Black Thursday" marked the beginning of the Wall Street Crash of 1929.