Financial turmoil around the world

The global market is having serious problem. Watch your investment carefully. There are many bad news in the US market. Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., the fourth-largest U.S. investment bank, filed a Chapter 11 petition with U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan today. Lehman was forced into bankruptcy after Barclays Plc and Bank of America Corp. abandoned takeover talks yesterday. Other news which is quite good, Bank of America Corp., the biggest U.S. consumer bank, agreed to acquire Merrill Lynch & Co. for about $50 billion as the credit crisis claimed another of America’s oldest financial companies. This news is good for the market. But this also tells us that current subprime mortgage crisis is far from over.

Stocks tumbled worldwide, the dollar fell and U.S. Treasuries surged after the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. drove investors to the safety of government debt.

Equities dropped in Europe and Asia, led by a 36 percent tumble in HBOS Plc and a 10 percent decline in Macquarie Group Ltd. Futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index fell 4 percent as American International Group Inc. sank 46 percent. Russia’s Micex Index declined 5.3 percent, leading a retreat in emerging markets. Crude oil fell more than $7 to a seven-month low as speculation turmoil on Wall Street and the worsening credit crisis may slow the global economy, cutting energy demand.