Trader's Highlight

DJI - NEW YORK, March 3 - U.S. stocks fell in volatile trading on Tuesday, with the S&P ending below 700 for the first time since October 1996 as persistent uncertainty about the amount of money needed to shore up the financial system
overshadowed a hunt for bargains.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 37.27 points, or 0.55 percent, to 6,726.02. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index lost 4.49 points, or 0.64 percent, to 696.33. The Nasdaq Composite Index shed 1.84 points, or 0.14 percent, to 1,321.01.


NYMEX - NEW YORK, March 3 - U.S. crude futures kept gains of more than $1 Tuesday in post-settlement trading, after the American Petroleum Institute said that domestic crude stocks dropped slightly last week due to lower imports.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, at 4:50 p.m. EST (2150 GMT), April crude was up $1.26, or 3.14 percent, at $41.41 a barrel. It earlier settled up $1.50, or 3.74 percent, at $41.65, seesawing between $39.44 and $42.07.

CBOT - SOYBEANS - March up 14-1/2 cents at $8.63 a bushel. Nearby spread firms as prospects for export demand for nearby U.S. soy remain strong given uncertainty over exports out of Argentina.

CBOT - SOYOIL - March up 0.09 cent at 30.19 cents a pound. Following rally in soybeans. Gains in crude oil also support.

FCPO - KUALA LUMPUR, March 3 - Malaysian crude palm oil futures ended down 0.9 percent on Tuesday on soft soyoil but with a weaker ringgit and speculation over stocks data supporting.

U.S. soybean futures rose only half a percent on Tuesday, after falling 3 percent in the previous session, as a deteriorating global economy hit stock markets and crude oil prices.

The benchmark May contract on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange went as low as 31 ringgit to 1,840 ringgit ($496.3) per tonne, a level unseen since Feb. 23. The contract then settled down 16 ringgit.

REGIONAL EQUITIES - BANGKOK, March 3 - Singapore's stock market hit a four-month low on Tuesday, and Malaysia and Thailand also fell, dragged down by further broad losses in Southeast Asian bank shares including DBS Group, Bumiputra-Commerce and Bangkok Bank.

Malaysia's index fell 0.9 percent to its lowest since Dec. 26, with lender CIMB off 0.8 percent. Public Bank fell 1.2 percent and Maybank shed 2 percent.