Digital Equipment Corp sees no signs of the recession in its markets lifting, Amdahl Corp says it’s lousy out there, Compaq Computer Corp is having a horrible time in the US to the extent that the rest of the world can’t compensate, Tandem Computers Inc had a rotten fiscal fourth quarter, and Sun Microsystems Inc figures were below expectation, Alan Greenspan, chairman of the US Federal Reserve says the US economy is having significant difficulty in bouncing back from the recession – but IBM Corp chairman John Akers sees signs of recovery; why should Wall Street soar 40 points on Greenspan’s gloomy comments, which raise the spectre of a second leg to the recession and resurgence of talk of depression? Traders reckon it points to a further cut in US interest rates, which would be good for whatever company profits there are – but London is schizophrenic to a degree, and after its 40-point rise on Monday on desperately thin trading, the FT-SE 100 index was quickly up 20 points in early trading, but by lunchtime had lost all of that and was off some seven points.
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