STOCKS: Thursday's review

Majors close:
Nikkei  +22.04  (0.23%)  9,659.18 
Topix  0.39  (-0.05%)  826.36
DAX  -225.83  (-3.40%)  6,414.76
CAC  -134.59  (-3.90%)  3,320.35
FTSE-100  -191.37  (-3.43%)  5,393.14
Dow  Dow  -512.76  (-4.31%)  11,383.70
Nasdaq  -60.27  (-4.78%)  1,200.07
S&P500  -136.68  (-5.08%)  2,556.39
10-Years    2.40%  -0.217
Oil    -0.19  (-0.22%)  86.44
Gold  -8.60  (-0.52%)  1,650.40

On Thursday Asian stock markets closed mixed.
The Japan’ Nikkei was supported by a sharp drop of the yen as Japan sold its currency in the foreign-exchange market for the first time since March to stem gains that threaten the nation’s economic recovery.
The Bank of Japan expanded its asset-purchase fund to 15 trillion yen ($189 billion) from 10 trillion yen, according to a statement. Policy makers also kept the benchmark interest rate near zero.
Hitachi and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries were among the biggest gainers on reports the groups may merge some of their businesses to create one of the world’s largest infrastructure companies. Shares of Hitachi rose by 1.7% and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries climbed by 3.4%.
Konami , the video games software maker, was the biggest climber on the Nikkei, up 5.1% after reporting net income more than tripled in the second quarter, beating expectations.
Most of other Asian stocks declined under pressure from ongoing concerns over the global economic outlook.
Banking sector was one of the worst performers in the Australian share market: Australia New Zealand Banking Group. shed 1.3%, National Australia Bank Ltd. lost 2.3%, Rio Tinto Ltd. losing 0.2%, Leighton Holdings Ltd. went down 0.3%.
The Australia’ S&P/ASX 200 index sang 1.30%

European stock equities lost between 3% and 4%.
On Thursday European markets shed after ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet acknowledged a “particularly high” level of uncertainty said inflation expectations “must remain firmly anchored.” He said the ECB will offer banks additional cash as the region’s debt crisis spreads increasing pressure on policy makers to resume bond purchases.
After the statement of Trichet Italian 10-year bond spread over German 10-year Bunds widens to a new record of 391 bps. Spain, French and Belgium 10-year bond also spread over German Bunds to record wides.
Speculations that the Fed consider another round of stimulus didn’t support the markets.
Europe’s leading banks suffered their worst day since Greece was first bailed out as the European Central Bank’s efforts to extend liquidity failed to mollify fearful investors.
However, the heavy falls went wider than that. Deutsche Bank was down more than 4% while in London HSBC fell 2.% and Barclays ended 7.8% lower.
Other banking stocks followed Lloyds lower, with Royal Bank of Scotland Group dropping 6.1% and Barclays PLC shedding nearly 8%.
Miners were targeted by sellers on Thursday amid global growth concerns. Shares of Xstrata PLC plummeted 8.5% and Anglo American PLC dropped 6.1%.

US stocks plummeted down by collapsed within 4%-5%.
Stocks plunged Thursday in their single worst day since the 2008 financial crisis.
Investors concern about the low pace of economic recovery of the U.S. and world in a whole as for a long time macroeconomic data show worse results than would be expected .
Shares of LinkedIn (LNKD) surged 7.8% in afterhours trading, when the newly-public company reported its second-quarter profit doubled from a year ago and its sales beat forecasts.
On Wednesday the Wall Street Journal reported that three former top officials at the Fed said the central bank should consider a new round of securities purchases to bolster economic growth. The Fed finished its second round of so-called quantitative easing, nicknamed “QE2” by investors, at the end of June. But this news didn’t support the markets.
Economy: The Labor Department's weekly initial jobless claims report showed that claims totaled 400K last week. Economists had expected weekly unemployment claims to rise to 410K from last week's 398K claims.
While the number was mildly better than expected, it still indicated weakness in the labor market. Investors wait for Friday’ data on unemployment rate.
Corporate news: As for the Dow-component stocks, shares of Alcoa (AA -9.3%), Caterpillar (CAT -7.0%) and Bank of America (BAC - 7.4%) suffered the highest losses, and among the S&P-components - Apple (AAPL -3.9%), Google (GOOG -3.9%) and Netflix (NFLX -5.5).
Despite strong quarterly reports shares many companies fell: Costco Wholesale Corp. (COST -0.7%). Limited (LTD -1.3%), LinkedIn (LNKD -9.6%). Such giants as General Motors (GM -4.3%) and AIG (AIG -6.4%) released weak financial results on Wednesday.