Wall Street rallies on European rescue plans

New York (dpa) - Wall Street delivered one its largest gains ever on Monday as a series of financial rescue plans around the world and efforts to boost liquidity heartened investors.

Stocks were up more than 11 per cent on the major US indices.

In its largest-ever point gain, the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 936.42 points, or 11.08 per cent, to 9,387.61.

The broader Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose 104.13 points, or 11.58 per cent, to 1,003.35, for its largest percentage gain in nearly 70 years. The technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index gained 194.74 points, or 11.81 per cent, to 1,844.25.

The rally came after Wall Street's worst week ever, as fears about the global financial crisis spooked investors, who feared a 700- billion-dollar US government bail-out plan would not be enough to unfreeze credit markets.

The US gain came as investors across Europe piled back into stocks, with national bourses gaining ground as key European governments unveiled unprecedented state cash injections Monday to steady their reeling banks, and after a weekend Group of Seven (G7) meeting pledged action to fight the global crisis and the far- reaching government bank rescue plans.

Shares also gained across Asia.

The European governments set up state funds to inject capital into the worst-hit banks and posted more than 1 trillion euros (1.4 trillion dollars) in guarantees to back up a revival of interbank lending.

Stocks were also boosted by a US Federal Reserve announcement that it and other central banks would take further measures to infuse liquidity into the markets.

The dollar rose against the Japanese currency to 102.02 yen from 100.62 yen on Friday. The dollar fell against the euro to 73.68 euro cents from 74.60 euro cents.

source bangkok post

North Korea invites US nuclear inspectors back

North Korea allowed international inspectors back into its nuclear facilities Monday, two days after the United States struck the country from its terrorism blacklist, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said.

In addition, the reclusive Stalinist state said it would resume disabling the Yongbyong nuclear complex on Tuesday by continuing to remove nuclear fuel from its reactor, the Vienna-based agency said in a document distributed to its member states.

The development came after the US State Department announced Saturday that North Korea had agreed to allow rigorous inspections of all its nuclear activities, with Washington responding by removing the Stalinist state from a list of sponsors of terrorism.

Earlier this month, Pyongyang had stopped IAEA inspectors from monitoring its plutonium reprocessing plant, prompting a stalemate after North Korea refused to agree to a mechanism for verifying the details of all of its nuclear activities until Washington removed the country from its state sponsors of terrorism list.

Last Thursday, the IAEA was banned from all nuclear facilities.

"The Democratic People's Republic of Korea today granted the Agency access to the 5 megawatt experimental nuclear power plant, the nuclear fuel fabrication plant and the reprocessing facility at Yongbyon," IAEA spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said.

Inspectors will also be able to reinstall seals and cameras in the plutonium reprocessing facility to ensure it remains shut down, IAEA members were informed.

IAEA experts are stationed permanently in Yongbyon to monitor the freeze of the complex that North Korea has agreed to in six-party talks with the US, China, South Korea, Japan and Russia, in exchange for improved diplomatic and economic relations, including energy and humanitarian aid.

The nuclear agency had not been briefed yet on the nuclear verification measures agreed to by the US and North Korea, including a possible role of the IAEA in the process, Fleming said.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Monday welcomed North Korea's decision to accept the verification measures and called on its government to completely disable its plutonium processing facility.

The facility was used to produce plutonium for North Korea's nuclear explosion test in 2006.

source bangkok post