:  business

||| MARKETS. It’s the first time since 2004

Dow ends below 10,000

||| Wall Street suffered one of its worst shocks ever as the Dow Jones closed below the 10,000-point threshold for the first time since the year 2004. ||| The losses were triggered by a major sell-off, which occurred despite optimism on the $700 billion rescue plan from the U.S. government.

Joe Bel Bruno and Tim Paradis |
AP Business Writers
 

NEW YORK – Wall Street joined in a worldwide cascade of despair on Monday over the financial crisis, driving the Dow Jones industrials to their biggest loss ever during a trading day. Even a big afternoon rally failed to keep the Dow from its first close below 10,000 since 2004.
The sell-off came despite the $700 billion U.S. government bailout package, which was signed into law last Friday after two weeks in which traders had appeared to count on the rescue as their only hope to avoid a market meltdown.
At its worst point, the Dow was down more than 800 points, an intraday record. The stock market rallied during the final 90 minutes of the trading day, and the Dow finished down about 370 points at 9,955.50.
Speculation among traders late in the session that the market's pullback had been severe enough to force the Federal Reserve into taking other steps to soothe the markets helped stocks rebound from their lows.
In the United States, President Bush twice made unscheduled remarks on the economy, saying in Cincinnati that the economy would be "just fine" but that the bailout package needed time to work.
The global plunge in stocks was under way well before Wall Street ever woke up. In Japan, the Nikkei average lost more than 4 percent. And then the losses spread across Europe – nearly 6 percent for the FTSE-100 in Britain, 7 percent for the German DAX and more than 9 percent for France's CAC-40.
In Latin America, Sao Paulo's Ibovespa index sank 15 percent – reaching its lowest level in two years before rebounding. It still ended the day down 5.4 percent at 42,101, its lowest closing since Nov. 28, 2006.
Argentina's Merval fell 5.9 percent to close at 1,423, while Mexico's IPC index slid 5.4 percent to 21,749. Chile's IPSA dipped 6 percent to 2,450, and Colombia's IGBC fell 4.9 percent to 8,761. |||   

||| ECB. They’re overestimating risks
 

Mkts need to be calm

Aoife White | AP Business Writer
 

LUXEMBOURG – European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet said on Monday that jittery markets are overestimating risks.
He called for markets to be calm, saying the euro-zone central bank stood ready to provide money markets with all the liquidity they needed for as long as they need.
Euro currency governments such as Germany and Ireland that have guaranteed all private savings were shouldering their responsibilities, he said. "We are able to react promptly and it seems to me in a fashion which is correct," he said.
The EU's 27 nations tried to soothe investors by pledging to take "all necessary measures to ensure the stability of the financial system," France said Monday.
That would include liquidity from the central banks, targeted measures for individual banks or a reinforcement of bank deposit guarantees, France's EU presidency said in a statement. |||  

||| BUYOUTS. For more than $6 billion
 

Eli Lilly buys ImClone

Tom Murphy and Linda A. Johnson

Associated Press Writers
 

INDIANAPOLIS – Eli Lilly & Co.'s winning bid of more than $6 billion for cancer drugmaker ImClone Systems means a billion-dollar payday for former rival bidder Bristol-Myers and vindication for corporate raider and ImClone Chairman Carl Icahn.
Lilly said on Monday it would pay $70 per share for New York-based ImClone. The acquisition, Lilly's largest ever, helps the Indianapolis drugmaker prepare for looming patent expirations and builds "a true oncology powerhouse," Lilly CEO John Lechleiter said. The deal also brings to an end one of the more dramatic buyout sagas in recent history.
Lilly's bid topped two previous offers from Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., which partnered with ImClone to develop and market the blockbuster drug Erbitux.
Lilly spokesman Mark Taylor said $6.5 billion is the estimated gross cost of the transaction. |||

BRIEFS

Venezuela is safe from the U.S. financial turmoil thanks to new leaderships in the Latin American region, said the country's finance minister Alí Rodríguez Araque during a televised interview on Sunday. "New policies with some autonomy have been developing thanks to new leaderships that have turned up in Latin America," Rodríguez Araque pointed out, adding that "those countries that have closer bonds with the United States may suffer a bigger shock". DJ Staff

Germany's SAP AG said on Monday that it expects to post a 13 to 14 percent increase in software-related revenues for the third quarter, but said it saw a sudden drop in business at the end of September as global market turmoil escalated. Walldorf-based SAP said it expects software and software-related service revenues for the July-September period to come in at between €1.97 billion and €1.98 billion – between $2.66 billion and $2.67 billion. That compares with revenues of euro 1.74 billion in the third quarter of 2007. AP

Mars Inc. has closed a deal to purchase of chewing-gum company Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co. to become the world's largest candy maker, Wrigley said on Monday. Mars, the privately held maker of M&Ms, Snickers and Skittles, paid $23 billion for Wrigley, which became a household name after it was started in Chicago in 1891. The merger will combine companies that have worldwide footprints and are powerhouses in separate parts of the confectionery sector, Wrigley in gum and Mars in chocolate candy. AP