Market Buzz: Bernanke's day

Asian markets are pulling back, snapping from a seven week high as investors apprehensively trade before Bernanke’s testimony before a congressional committee on the Fed’s plan to ease monetary policies, and stop pumping stimulus into the US economy.

Asian markets are already pulling back, and have snapped from a seven week high as investors apprehensively trade before Bernanke’s testimony before a congressional committee on the Federal Reserves’s plan to ease monetary policies, and stop pumping stimulus into the US economy.

The markets will keep an ear, and eye, and all other sensory devices on the release of the ‘Beige book’, the US Federal Reserve’s official summary of economic conditions.

The hype may just be a market shaker, as Bernanke will likely reinforce his previous comments that the Fed may start pulling back on its $85 million per month bond buying program by the end of 2013 and keeping interest rates near zero.

Russian markets were mixed as the Micex index jumped 0.5 percent to 1,410.10 by close in Moscow, but the dollar-based RTS index ended down 0.03 percent, but futures on the index added 0.3 percent

Trade will be played more conservatively today in uncertainty over political blogger Aleksey Navalny, and Putin main opposition possible 6-year prison sentence, to be delivered Thursday.

WTI crude fell back into a lull, and is down 0.25 percent to 105.73 on Asian bourses, but Brent crude has managed to snap out of a widespread commodity lull and sell at 109.40, a 0.28 increase

Asian stocks are mostly trading high ahead of Bernanke comments, but indices are low. Nikkei, which is down 0.58 percent. The Hong Kong Sang Index is up 0.54 percent, the Shanghai Composite is down 0.15 percent, Tokyo’s Topix is down 0.24 percent and Australia’s S&P 200 has made a slight recovery on yesterday’s losses, and is up 0.10 percent.

US markets finished the session low. The Dow Jones dropped 0.21 percent, the S&P trimmed 0.37 percent.

European markets also took a brutal beating. Britain’s leading FTSE index was down 0.45 percent, the Euro Stoxx 50 fell 0.78 percent, Germany’s DAX dropped 0.41 percent, and France’s CAC 40 was down 0.71 percent