ASIA The Nikkei ended up 0.6% after a rollercoaster day that saw it climb more than 510 points from low to high, with bank shares such as Mizuho Financial Group at the front of the action (RTRS) US crude oil futures extended losses to hover just above $97 a barrel as traders used a slump on Wall Street and indications of an OPEC shift toward increasing production at next week's meeting as a reason to sell (RTRS) At 0630 crude was trading $97.19 down 51c. US Stocks finished sharply lower on Monday on further weakness in the US dollar and on renewed concerns about the U.S. financial sector. The Dow Industrials fell 237 pts (-1.83%) to 12,743. The S&P 500 Index declined 33.48 pts (-2.32%) to 1407.22 and the Nasdaq 100 Index subtracted 39.54 pts (-1.95%) to 1989.36. Both the Dow and S&P 500 ended in correction territory (e.g. 10% plus losses) after reaching record highs in October. The negative tone for financials was set in European trading after Goldman Sachs downgraded U.K bank HSBC and this carried over into the U.S. session. Citigroup (-3.15% to $30.70) was again in focus today following an article in the WSJ that the company may have to put $41 billion in CDOs on its balance sheet. Later CNBCâs Gasparino reported that the company will announce massive layoffs, affecting up to 45K jobs. Elsewhere, mortgage services Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac fell 10.2% and 7.4% to $28.92 and $24.50, respectively, on continuing concerns over its accounting, while shares of Countrywide Financial slid more than 10% on news that U.S. Senator wrote a letter to the FHFB asking that the companyâs home loan advances be examined, citing a rapid deterioration of its loan portfolio. While the weakness in equities was widespread, consumer electronics retailers and tech names, including, Apple (+0.6% to $172.54) , that supply the products finished higher on the session following a note from Bank of America saying that the electronics retailers hit a âhome run.â Shares of Best Buy rose 0.48% to $48.23. Toward the end of the session stock losses accelerated on wire reports that Osama bin Laden will be releasing a new audio tape soon to Europeans. Amid the sharp declines in stocks Treasuries rallied on the session in a flight to quality bid with the yield on the 10 year dropping 15.6 basis points to 3.84%. Stocks sink into correction as credit fears take toll (WSJ) DJI average decline of 1.83% yesterday sent it 10% below its October peak. Citigroup - The company is selling up to 4.9% of itself for USD 7.5bln to the investment arm of the Abu Dhabi government. The move comes as Citigroup seeks to restore investor confidence amid massive losses due in credit markets. (RTRS) General Motors - The carmaker has not ruled out interest in a possible alliance with Malaysian car-maker Proton. (RTRS) FTSE HSBC - The bank has stepped in to support its two structured investment vehicles, Cullinan and Asscher, with funding of up to USD 35bln to prevent forced sale of assets (RTRS)** GlaxoSmithKline - The company sent misleading letters to health professionals touting its breast cancer drug Tykerb. The FDA said they omit and minimise the most serious and important risk information. (RTRS)** Barclays - The bank is on track to meet analysts' expectations for earnings growth of 4% this year, saying diversification has shielded it from recent turbulence in capital markets. Its performance in the first nine months of this year was underpinned by good underlying growth in global retail and commercial banking. The bank said liquidity remains strong and we continue to see good inflows of deposits and impairment performance in unsecured credit continued to improve and charges remained negligible in mortgages. (RTRS)** Severn Trent - 1H pretax ex-items GBP 161.5mln vs Exp. GBP 152mln, company said it is on track to meet FY operating cost forecasts. (RTRS)** CAC Sanofi-Aventis - The company wants to become number one in China and intends to increase its market share. The head of the company's China unit said they are studying a Chinese acquisition. (Les Echos) EUROSTOXX Telefonica - Merrill Lynch said it sees at least 16% upside until the end of 2008. The broker also said that the company is trading at a discount to market multiples while the quality of its asset portfolio, management track record and EPS growth rate is higher than the sector average. (S&P) SMI Novartis - The company filed a patent suit versus Trimeris, Hoffman. (La Roche) BROKER UPGRADES/DOWNGRADES AXA RAISED TO 'OUTPERFORM' FROM 'NEUTRAL' BY CREDIT SUISSE STMICRO MERRILL CUTS TARGET TO EUR 12.7 FROM EUR 14.8 THYSSENKRUPP CUT TO NEUTRAL FROM BUY AT GOLDMANS UNITED UTILITIES HSBC DOWNGRADES TO NEUTRAL FROM OVERWEIGHT BG CUT TO `SELL' AT ING. REPSOL RAISED TO `HOLD' AT ING CHEVRON RAISED TO `OUTPERFORM' VS `PEER PERFORM' AT BEAR MARATHON OIL RAISED TO `PEER PERFORM' AT BEAR STEARNS The above commentary was provided by Real-time Analysis & News (R.A.N) Ltd (known to traders as âRansquawkâ) operates from 0630GMT until 2200GMT to incorporate full coverage of the US bond and equity futures markets. Currently R.A.N covers Bond, STIR and Index futures in the US, UK and Eurozone as well as NYMEX crude and Gold. Furthermore, R.A.N has a stand alone Forex service (Ransquawk FX) which covers all the major currency pairs. 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