Asian Shrs Riding High Into Weekend; Nikkei Up 4.4%
Last Update: 3/12/2009 11:00 PM
(Adds information, quotes, updates/adds market levels) SINGAPORE (MarketWatch) -- Asian shares were higher Friday, buoyed by gains on Wall Street and renewed interest in financial stocks, as optimism about Citigroup's outlook received a boost. Japan's Nikkei 225 was up 4.4% with South Korea's Kospi Composite up 0.7% and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 up 3.1%. New Zealand's NZX-50 had added 1.4%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index was 2.8% higher, China's Shanghai Composite index up 1.3% and Taiwan's Taiex up 1.9%. Financial stocks were getting a boost after Reuters reported that Citigroup Inc. Chairman Richard Parsons said Thursday that the bank doesn't need further capital injections from the government and also expressed confidence it would remain in private hands.

Planet's health doesn't belong in free market's hands
Last Update: 3/13/2009 12:01:00 AM
We should stop talking about putting a cap on carbon pollution and trading clean energy credits. It's madness. Allowing the "free market" to determine the fate of our health and our planet is not the path to correctness. Aren't we seeing the fallout of the free-market system play out before us now?

Despite Japan's deterioration, yen is likely to hold its ground
Last Update: 3/12/2009 9:40:00 PM
Japan's deteriorating economic fundamentals have dulled the yen's safe-haven shine, but some strategists say it's too early to toss the currency on the slag heap.