Tom Porcelli, chief USA economist at RBC Capital Markets, noted that polls showed investors were more bearish on Wall Street than at any time since mid-1987. One loser was sterling which carved out a seven-year low after Bank of England Governor Mark Carney said he had no "set timetable" for raising interest rates. But in the USA, aluminum producer Alcoa fell 2.3 percent, copper giant Freeport-McMoRan slumped 9.0 percent and industrial machinery maker Caterpillar lost 1.4 percent. European and Asian stocks rallied Tuesday after China's quarterly economic growth met expectations, calming intense jitters about the global outlook that have battered markets since the beginning of the year. Gains in shares of UnitedHealth Group and those of Procter & Gamble, last up 3.1 percent and 1.7 percent respectively, led the Dow higher. China's main stock indexes opened lower on Wednesday after the country's securities regulator announced a new batch of initial public offerings, despite the central bank's pledge to ease short-term liquidity. It warned the world's second-largest economy would see growth of only 6.3 percent in 2016. The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index rose 1.5 per cent. The STOXX Europe 600 Basic Resources index, which includes miners, added 4.1 per cent. Brent crude, a benchmark for worldwide oils, rose 54 cents to $29.09 per barrel. ENERGY: Benchmark U.S. crude for March delivery was down 88 cents at $28.70 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. A further reason for the sharper sell-off in oil on Wednesday was the expiration of the February WTI contract, with most traders have already closed their positions and started to trade on the March contract, said Daniel Ang, a Phillip Futures energy analyst. The price of gold fell $1.60 to $1,089.10 an ounce. Quarter-on-quarter, growth slipped to 1.6 per cent in the last three months of 2015 from 1.8 per cent in the third. Jewelry retailer Tiffany fell after reporting that sales dropped in the fourth quarter and said it will eliminate some jobs. The spot yuan was at 6.5793, little changed from Monday's close, but offshore it weakened to 6.5960 to stand 0.3 percent adrift from the onshore rate. China's Shanghai Composite Index was down 1.03 percent while India's S&P BSE Sensex was trading lower by 1.82 percent. KEEPING SCORE: In early trading, Germany's DAX tumbled 2.4 percent to 9,436.57 and France's CAC-40 shed 2.2 percent to 4,176.45. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index was down 3.77 percent while in South Korea, the Kospi extended losses to trade down 2.73 percent. Japan's Nikkei 225 inched up 0.5 percent. CURRENCIES: The U.S. dollar edged up to 117.69 yen from 117.50 yen on Monday. Against a basket of currencies, the USA dollar was down just a touch at 98.919, while the euro edged up to $1.0938. PopHerald.com

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