Stocks closed mostly lower Thursday as nervous investors took quick profits on early gains made after unprecedented joint central bank action to boost liquidity and ease the global credit crunch. In London, the FTSE 100 index lost 0.66 percent to 4,888.00 points, having been more than one percent higher at one stage. In Paris, the CAC 40 shed 1.06 percent to 3,957.86 points to breach the key 4,000 points support level while in Frankfurt, the DAX managed to just hold in positive territory to finish up 0.04 percent at 5,863.42 points. In New York, US stocks rebounded Thursday as a massive liquidity push by global central banks appeared to calm markets a day after a feverish rush to safe-haven assets. The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 155.27 points (1.46 percent) to 10,764.93 at 1430 GMT a day after a rout that saw the blue-chip index lose 449 points. The tech-heavy Nasdaq rallied 33.71 points (1.61 percent) to 2,132.56 and the Standard & Poor's 500 index advanced 20.68 points (1.79 percent) to 1,177.07. Dealers said that after massive losses so far this week, news of central bank moves to pour some $300 billion into desperately tight money markets gave sentiment an initial boost. They said many took the move as a clear sign that the authorities would take whatever action was necessary to ensure that the global credit crunch did not turn into a global depression. Wall Street jumped nearly 1.5 percent at first but by late European trade it had reversed direction to show a loss. Across Asia, stocks fell but managed to erase most of the sharp losses that arose after Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. filed for bankruptcy protection and insurer American International Group Inc. was bailed out by the US government. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index, which sank more than 7 percent at one point, closed virtually flat at 17,632 points. Tokyo's Nikkei 225 index, also paring early losses, ended down 2.2 percent to 11,489.30, a three-year low. In other markets, Australia's S&;P/ASX200 index fell 2.4 percent, South Korea's Kospi lost 2.3 percent, and China's Shanghai benchmark dropped 1.7 percent after earlier falling 7 percent. Investors were shaken by the Federal Reserve's $85 billion emergency loan to AIG, the huge US insurer that lost billions in the risky business of insuring against bond defaults and became the latest victim of the historic financial turmoil that's engulfed Wall Street over the last year. Meanwhile, gold prices spiked near $900 an ounce Thursday as unnerved investors poured money into safe-haven assets for a second day on fears that a US recession is all but unavoidable. Gold is up about $100 in a frenzied two-day rally, including the largest ever one-day price advance on Wednesday. The metal's latest push came as the Federal Reserve stepped up efforts to stem the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. The central bank pumped $55 billion into temporary reserves in the United States to free up the strained financial system. Hours earlier, the Fed joined other central banks to flood world markets with dollars, hoping to stave off a collapse of international credit markets. The emergency moves helped boost the stock market a day after a massive decline, but many investors, fearing more turbulence in coming days, continued to shift funds out of riskier investments like stocks and into the relative safety of precious metals and USTreasury bills. The influx of money marked a sharp turnaround for gold, which had seemed to be frozen in a months-long lull since shooting above $1,000 for the first time ever in March. Gold for December delivery jumped to $897.40 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange before easing back to $878.10, up $27.60. On Wednesday, gold rose as much as $90 before settling $70 higher at $850.50 an ounce, the biggest one
