Will Merrill Lynch the US stock markets today?

[malaise]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/global/2008/jul/29/merrilllynch.creditcrunch
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Merrill Lynch shocked the market last night when it moved to raise $8.5bn (£4.3bn) through a public share offering to shore up its balance sheet, sold $11.1bn of toxic mortgage securities and took a fresh $5.7bn writedown.

The move came only days after the Wall Street bank unveiled a $4.6bn second-quarter loss and writedowns of $9.4bn. The latest writedown brings Merrill's total to $46bn, making it one of the biggest casualties of the credit crunch so far, along with rivals Citi and UBS.

The announcement came after Wall Street closed yesterday. Shares in Merrill had ended the day down 11.6% at $24.33, suggesting some traders knew what was coming.

Nomura, Japan's largest brokerage, added to the gloom this morning as it posted a surprise ¥76.6bn (£355m) loss for the three months to end June, compared with a profit of ¥75.9bn a year ago. Revenues crashed 60% to ¥257.9bn because of a slump in trading and new stock offerings.