World Markets, Bank of Hawaii and Airline Price Hikes

Written by Howard Dicus - hdicus@kgmb9.com

January 28, 2008 01:24 PM

Blog: www.kgmb9.com/howard Part I: Asian stock markets fell four to seven percent last night, but European markets fell less than two percent and Wall Street has actually turned slightly upward. Bank of Hawaii reports quarterly profits down 20% to less than 41 million dollars. Half of the decline in earnings came from litigation liabilities in antitrust actions brought against member banks of Visa. Interest income was flat but non-interest income grew smartly, and charge-offs came to less than a third of a percent. Travel agents report that a doubling of the fuel surcharge on most mainland air routes has taken hold. All the major carriers matched what Continental started. On two thirds of legacy carrier routes, the roundtrip fuel surcharge has gone from 20 to 40 dollars. Here at home, meanwhile, Go is posting 29 dollar seats for some seats, for those who buy by tomorrow night for travel in February.  Part II: The Dow stopped falling this morning and has been up 60 or 70 points over the past hour. It didn't look so good earlier, when Asia markets took another dive. The Nikkei fell 4% and Shanghai fell 7%. All the Asian markets took a bath except Sydney, which took a day off. But European markets fell less than 2%, despite more details surfacing about the rogue trader at the second largest bank in France. Prosecutors have revealed that the trader never took a franc for himself, and that the bank was basically onto him two months ago but didn't stop him. In the news background here in the United States, profits are down at McDonalds, the CEO at Sears is out, but the bottom line is up nicely at Black and Decker and Halliburton. Bad news -- new home sales in December fell to a 12-year low. The national median price came in 10% below year-before levels. But the market swallowed the news without ill-effects, apparently because it already figured the report would be that yucky.

Last Updated ( January 28, 2008 01:24 PM )