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Equity strategists from a majority of leading Russian and international investment banks and brokerage houses have predicted that the flow of Russian equity fund raisings will not resume until H1 2010. A poll of leading analysts conducted by Merlin has established that 11 out of 15 interviewed analysts do not see international IPOs by Russian companies resuming before Q1 2010, while Q3 2010 was named by most analysts as the likely timeframe for Russian domestic IPOs to recommence.

The first IPO of 2009 will probably not take place until the middle of February due to Japan’s switch this month to electronic stock certificates.

NYSE Euronext announced trading volumes for its global cash equities and derivatives exchanges for December 2008, as well as other business metrics. December 2008 trading volumes were characterized by strong year-over-year growth in U.S. cash trading, stable European cash trading volumes and lower futures and options trading volume across our U.S. and European derivatives platforms. For the full-year 2008, NYSE Euronext registered double-digit growth in trading volumes across U.S. and European cash and derivatives product areas.

Companies across the London Stock Exchange’s markets raised a record £63 billion in new and further issues of equity during the course of 2008, significantly ahead of the total for the whole of 2007. These strong figures, despite difficult market conditions, were underpinned by a number of substantial secondary issues throughout the year, together with key international wins which consolidated the London’s position as the international capital market of choice. There is a good IPO pipeline awaiting an improvement in market conditions.

A total of 49 companies will conduct IPOs in 2008, including those through the end of the year. This represents a roughly 60% decline from 121 companies last year. It will also be the first time since the markets for emerging companies were established in 1999 that the number of IPOs will be in the double-digit range.

Despite extreme volatility in the stock market, 60 percent of U.S. consumers in a new Morpace Omnibus Study say they are not altering the way they make their investment choices. This proportion has remained essentially unchanged over the past four months.

NYSE Euronext announced trading volumes for its global cash equities and derivatives exchanges. NYSE Euronext registered increased trading activity on U.S. cash equities and options exchanges in November and strong year-to-date volume gains across all its global multi-asset platforms.

In a recent survey conducted by SogoTrade, the $3 per trade online brokerage, 62 percent of active investors expressed some concerns about the current volatile market, but just 17 percent said they are sitting on the sidelines waiting for signs to reenter. Fully 20 percent said in the current volatile market environment they are both "excited and enjoying the action," and only 1 percent expressed that they would "probably never own a stock again."

First Australia, then China's manufacturing sector had a horror October according to survey results released yesterday. Then overnight the US, Russia, UK and Europe produced surveys showing similar results. All signs the slump in the respective economies is deepening.

US and European stock markets will be looking for more gains in coming days after the strongest bounce for weeks last week. Most markets had goodish gains Friday, with the US in a half day's trading mode after Thanksgiving.