FROM MORRISON SECURITIES PTY. LTD.

U.S. STOCK MARKETS

U.S. stocks erased a little bit of Monday's sharp run-up in a late-day drop led by declines in energy and financial stocks.

While Monday's action had the look of end-of-quarter/month window dressing, Tuesday looked a little more like investors taking some money off the table after a strong run in the aforementioned sectors.

Health-care and utilities sectors finish higher. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 43.90 points to 13197.73, and the Nasdaq Composite slipped 2.22 points to 3120.35.

The S&P 500 was 3.99 lower at 1412.52. U.S. consumers in March remained confident about the economy and labor markets, according to a report by the Conference Board.

The private research group's index dropped to 70.2 in March from an upwardly revised February reading of 71.6, which was the highest in a year. This month's figure was close to the 70 anticipated by economists in a Dow Jones Newswires poll.

U.S. home prices fell in January from a month earlier, hitting early-2003 levels, according to Standard & Poor's Case-Shiller home-price index. The data signal the housing market remains sluggish despite soft prices and historically low interest rates. The Case-Shiller index of 10 major metropolitan areas declined 0.8%, as did the 20-city index.

In other economic news, activity among manufacturers in the central Atlantic region weakened but remained in expansion territory for the fourth straight month, the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond reported. The bank's manufacturing general-business index fell to 7 in March from 20 in February.

EUROPEAN STOCK MARKETS

European stock markets ended lower Tuesday as U.S. consumer confidence data disappointed, while French oil group Total SA tumbled as concerns mounted over a gas leak at a North Sea platform.

The Stoxx Europe 600 index fell 0.5% to close at 266.92, off a session high of 270.06. The French CAC 40 index underperformed, falling 0.9% to 3,469.59, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 index ended 0.6% lower at 5,869.55, while Germany's DAX 30 index closed flat at 7,078.90.

The broader European stock market seesawed for most of the session, but moved lower in afternoon trade after a gauge of U.S. consumer confidence disappointed expectations.

Stephen Pope, managing partner at Spotlight Ideas, noted however that the Conference Board's consumer confidence index remains near a 12-month high and stocks should continue to benefit from a feel-good attitude.

French oil group Total fell 6% amid a gas leak that started Sunday in the Elgin field in the North Sea and was still ongoing. Among other French stocks, shares of Accor SA added 3.7% as Societe Generale upgraded the hotel chain to buy from hold.

Banks rose in the U.K. Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC posted the biggest surge, up 3.3%. Late Monday, the British Broadcasting Corp. reported that the U.K. government is in talks with Abu Dhabi's sovereign-wealth fund to sell up to a third of its stake in RBS by Christmas. An RBS representative contacted by Dow Jones Newswires declined to comment on any potential sale.

Barclays PLC gained 1.5% as HSBC Holdings PLC added 0.6%. BP PLC fell 2.2%. The oil group said it has agreed to sell its interest in some U.K. North Sea gas assets to Perenco UK Ltd. for $400 million in cash as part of a divesting strategy.

In Germany, Deutsche Lufthansa AG rose 2.2% after J.P. Morgan Cazenove upgraded the stock to overweight from neutral. Volkswagen AG added 1.1% after TrueCar.com said it sees March U.S. sales for the car maker up 33.1% year-on-year.

ASIA-PACIFIC STOCK MARKETS

Asian stock markets ended higher Tuesday, with Japanese shares climbing to their highest level in more than a year after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke signaled U.S. interest rates may remain at the current ultra-low levels.

Spurred by strong overnight gains on Wall Street and a weaker yen, the Nikkei Stock Average ended at 10,255.15, jumping 2.4% from the previous day's close for its biggest percentage gain in more than five months.

Elsewhere, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index gained 1.8%, South Korea's Kospi climbed 1.0%, and Taiwan's Taiex advanced 0.8%. Diverging from the regional trend, China's Shanghai Composite fell 0.2%.

Data released Tuesday by China's National Bureau of Statistics showed the nation's largest industrial groups saw their net income drop 5.2% in the first two months of the year from the year-earlier period.

Still, the boost for markets may be short-lived, with Credit Agricole strategist Mitul Kotecha noting that while Bernanke maintained that accommodative monetary policy is still required, he didn't hint at more quantitative easing.

Metal futures climbed in New York on Monday after the dollar softened on Bernanke's remarks, in turn lifting metal-related stocks a boost in Asia on Tuesday.

Nippon Light Metal advanced 3.0% in Tokyo and Korea Zinc jumped 5.5% in Seoul. Aluminum Corp. of China Ltd., or Chalco, rose 4.1% and Jiangxi Copper gained 3.8% in Hong Kong; in Shanghai, Jiangxi Copper rose 1.0% and Zhongjin Gold Corp. climbed 2.0%.

Shares of Sumitomo Metal Mining spiked 5.9% in Tokyo on news the Pogo gold mine in Alaska, of which it owns 85%, has found a gold deposit estimated at 40 metric tons.

The yen's weakness after Bernanke's remarks supported many major Japanese exporters; Toyota Motor Corp. climbed 3.6% and Sony Corp. added 3.1%. Honda Motor gained 3.5% after a Nikkei report that the car maker would build a new Thailand plant that was less likely to be affected by floods than its existing facility.

COMMODITIES

Base metals closed mixed on the London Metal Exchange Tuesday, pressured somewhat by a firmer dollar and struggling for traction in either direction amid a lack of fresh macroeconomic cues.

At the close, LME three-month copper was unchanged on the day at $8,535 a metric ton, while lead closed 0.8% lower at $1,985/ton.

Oil futures squeezed out a modest gain Tuesday, but struggled to find direction as traders awaited government inventory data for further guidance.

Light, sweet crude for May delivery settled 30 cents, or 0.3%, higher, at $107.33 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude on the ICE futures exchange recently fell 10 cents, or 0.1%, to $125.55 a barrel.

Gold futures ended near unchanged, with markets dominated by trading linked to gold options expiration on the Comex and shifts in the currency markets. The most actively traded contract, for April delivery, settled down 70 cents at $1,684.90 a troy ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.