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After the carnage on global markets on Black Monday, Japan and Australia were the first powerhouse economies to see the dawn of Tuesday morning. While American markets had taken Monday off for Martin Luther King Day, the panic gripping global markets had continued to wreak havoc.

Yesterday, as US traders slept, the bloody trading began anew on the other side of the world. By midnight GMT Australia’s markets had been open an hour. Investors’ rush for the door crashed the website of the country’s leading online share broker, CommSec, as the market started an immediate downward spiral. The stock market’s fall of nearly 3 per cent on Monday looked timid as it raced towards its biggest one-day slide in 20 years. Hans Kunnen, the head of investment markets research for Colonial First State, said: "Judging by the mood of the market today, the bears are certainly winning."

However, what the Asian markets did not know, as they started their downward spiral, was that in America the members of the Federal Reserve were calling each other.

Betfair scores 100 per cent uptime Down Under

When UK-based online trading site Betfair was granted a licence to operate in Australia this January, it built a new data centre and flew the entire set-up from the UK to Tasmania on two chartered aeroplanes. In the first three weeks of going live, the company has achieved 100 per cent uptime.

GMDC hits upper circuit on strong results, bonus issue

MUMBAI: Shares of Gujarat Mineral Development Corporation were locked on 5 per cent upper circuit of Thursday after the company reported strong third quarter numbers.

The stock was at Rs 387.25, up Rs 18.40 on volume of 8583 shares. It has gained 12.87 per cent in the past one week.

The company's net profit for quarter ended December grew 77.11 per cent at Rs 93.25 crore against Rs 52.65 crore in same period a year ago.

Total income has increased to Rs 281.48 crore as compared with Rs 139.83 crore. The company also recommended a bonus issue of shares in the ratio of 1:1.

The stock closed at Rs.368.85, down Rs.17.85 or 4.62% on BSE. .

Production notes

Their first order of business was to find actors to play Molly and Carl Peterson, the new bride and groom who would be the target of Dupree's adulation and accidental mischief.

In approaching the role of Molly, Wilson and Le Sieur agreed with Stuber, Parent and the Russo brothers that one of the keys to the film was ensuring that Molly was absolutely, adorably likeable.

"One of the first names that came up to play Molly was Kate Hudson," says Le Sieur. "It would be easy for Molly to come across as nagging. She has to put up with a lot-especially being newly married-and we didn't want that. Kate is so loveable that she brings genuine sparkle to the character. She's luminous, definitely a burst of light that lets the audience know immediately why Carl is in love with her."

Anthony Russo agrees that the team never looked at any of the three main players as the ultimate antagonist, especially Molly.

Is this the Breaking of the Bear?

With a primary value driver linked to the biggest drag on the US economy for the last century or so, Bear Stearn's excessive reliance on highly "modeled" and real asset/mortgage backed products in its portfolio may potentially be its undoing. This is exacerbated significantly by leverage, lack of transparency, and products that are relatively illiquid, even when the mortgage days were good.

Bear Stearns Companies Inc (BSC) has been at the forefront of the ongoing subprime mortgage crisis and has been considered the main trigger for the credit turmoil with the failure of its two hedge funds in July 2007. These failures marked the beginning of credit turmoil and severely tarnished the company's reputation.