STEVE INSKEEP, host:
NPR's business news starts with the global markets still on edge.
And let's start on Wall Street where stock prices are down this morning despite the government's decision to bail out the insurance giant, AIG. The Dow is down, the NASDAQ is down, the S&P 500 Stock Index also down. The U.S. government stepped in to save AIG because it was nervous about the worldwide repercussions if the global company were to go down. But worldwide reaction to that move has been mixed. The main stock averages in Britain and France, we can tell you today, are both up. In Asia, Tokyo's main stock average ended the day higher as well. But most other stock markets in the region fell, including in Australia, India, and Hong Kong, all down. It doesn't seem like financial markets there were reassured. Governments in those countries still decided to pump billions of dollars into their financial markets hoping to boost confidence and keep the system functioning smoothly. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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