MARKETS DOWN STILL

1-WORLD QUAKES LAST 2 DAYS.2-Storm blankets Quebec, aims for Maritimes. 3-National Weather Service Preliminary Data - EF Scale 3 Tornado Hit Enterprise. 4-Widespread storms cause deaths in 3 states. 5-Dozens die in Indonesia landslides. 6-EU promises to rally efforts to push forward Mideast peace process. 7-Israel criticizes Russian-Syrian arms deal. 8-Israel training for war with Iran, Syria? 9-Israel Celebrates Purim Holiday Under Tight Security. 10-Stocks fall amid rise in yen; Dow posts worst performance in more than 4 years.

EARTHQUAKES

MATTHEW 24:7-8
7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.

MARK 13:8
8 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom:(ETHNIC GROUP AGAINST ETHNIC GROUP) and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows.

LUKE 21:11
11 And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.

WORLD QUAKES LAST 2 DAYS (USGS)

Update time = Sun Mar 4 12:00 AM EDT

MAR 03,07
MAP 2.8 FOX ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 4.8 TAIWAN REGION
MAP 2.9 PUERTO RICO REGION
MAP 5.1 NEAR THE NORTH COAST OF PAPUA, INDONESIA
MAP 3.4 PUERTO RICO REGION
MAP 2.8 SOUTHERN ALASKA

MAR 02,07
MAP 3.0 ALASKA PENINSULA
MAP 3.1 ALASKA PENINSULA
MAP 2.7 KENAI PENINSULA, ALASKA
MAP 4.9 HOKKAIDO, JAPAN REGION
MAP 4.6 CATAMARCA, ARGENTINA
MAP 5.7 COQUIMBO, CHILE
MAP 3.1 FOX ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 2.9 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 3.0 NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 2.9 NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 4.7 FIJI REGION
MAP 2.6 KODIAK ISLAND REGION, ALASKA
MAP 2.8 ISLAND OF HAWAII, HAWAII
MAP 2.8 SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA, CALIFORNIA
MAP 4.2 SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA, CALIFORNIA
MAP 2.8 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 2.6 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP 3.9 DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
MAP 2.9 ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA

MAR 01,07
MAP 5.9 NORTHERN MID-ATLANTIC RIDGE
MAP 5.3 NORTHERN MID-ATLANTIC RIDGE
MAP 5.3 NORTHERN MID-ATLANTIC RIDGE
MAP 3.0 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP 2.5 NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 3.1 PUERTO RICO REGION
MAP 5.4 MOLUCCA SEA
MAP 2.5 PUERTO RICO
MAP 3.3 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 3.9 ALASKA PENINSULA
MAP 3.1 WASHINGTON
MAP 3.6 OREGON
MAP 2.6 PUERTO RICO
MAP 2.8 PUERTO RICO REGION
MAP 2.7 PUERTO RICO REGION
MAP 3.3 NEVADA
MAP 4.6 GUERRERO, MEXICO
MAP 3.1 SOUTH OF ALASKA
MAP 2.9 ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
MAP 5.3 ANDAMAN ISLANDS, INDIA REGION
MAP 2.7 NEVADA
MAP 5.7 NORTHERN SUMATRA, INDONESIA
MAP 3.2 PUERTO RICO REGION

STORMS HURRICANES-TORNADOES

LUKE 21:25-26
25 And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity;(MASS CONFUSION) the sea and the waves roaring;(FIERCE WINDS)
26 Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.

Storm blankets Quebec, aims for Maritimes
Friday, March 2, 2007 - CBC News

A winter storm blamed for at least two deaths and commuter chaos in southern Ontario is bringing high winds and heavy snowfall to Quebec on Friday as it sweeps toward the Maritimes.

Environment Canada has issued a winter storm warning for regions stretching from Ottawa into southern Quebec as well as all of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island.The problem with this winter storm is we've seen everything ,snow, freezing rain, rain, ice pellets and high winds, said CBC meteorologist Nick Czernkovich.The storm, which knocked out power to roughly 80,000 people in Ontario overnight, brought 27 centimetres of snow to the Montreal area in just 12 hours, Czernkovich said.Friday was a snow day for most students in the greater Montreal region, as all major school boards called off classes for the day. Many flights were cancelled at Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport.The combination of heavy snow, freezing rain and winds brought down power lines and trees, Czernkovich added.We all look at the snowfall, but we can't underestimate the effect of winds.Part of the storm is sheering off toward northern Ontario as the main body heads eastward and is expected to hit the Atlantic provinces later on Friday.In Nova Scotia, high winds were forecast for the shoreline late Friday, with some areas expected to be hit with gusts of up to 100 km/h.

Thousands without power

Meanwhile, across Ontario, thousands of residents woke up Friday morning in homes without power.Hydro One spokesman Daffyd Roderick told CBC Newsworld about 80,000 households and businesses had no electricity.Hydro crews were alerted to 25 snapped poles on Thursday afternoon, but the main obstacle facing power crews is gaining access, he said.There's only so much we can do until Mother Nature does her work, and then we can set about repairing … when conditions are safe out there.By Friday afternoon, officials said power had been restored to 40,000 customers.

Meanwhile, police in Toronto closed a downtown section of Front Street after chunks of ice were seen falling from the CN Tower and other buildings.It's like shrapnel when it hits the ground, a police officer told CBC News.

Few parts of southwestern Ont. unscathed

The power failures have affected portions of southwestern Ontario from Strathroy and Walkerton to Newmarket and the GTA.Very few parts are unscathed today, Roderick said, adding the hardest-hit areas may have to wait between three and five days to see the situation restored to normal. Wind gusts of up to 82 km/h were recorded at Toronto Island Airport.Many Ontario roads are flooded or slick with ice, and more freezing rain and snow on Friday could make driving conditions just as treacherous as the previous day, when the intense storm was blamed for the deaths of two children.

Police said the children seven-year-old Anita Hiebert and her six-year-old brother, Pancho died Thursday when a car and a truck collided on an icy, snow-blown road near the town of Listowel, northwest of Kitchener. The children's mother, Christina Hiebert, is in critical condition in a London hospital.Police and tow trucks responded to hundreds of other crashes across southern Ontario, as blowing snow and ice pellets created slippery conditions and poor visibility.
With files from the Canadian Press

National Weather Service Preliminary Data - EF Scale 3 Tornado Hit EnterpriseMarch 2, 2007 05:23 PM EST

ENTERPRISE, Ala., March 2, 2007 -- Bob Goree of the National Weather Service says preliminary indications are that the tornado that ravished the Enterprise area was an EF Scale 3 tornado.

Today we see the intensity of the damage. Now, we're not quite ready to put the new enhanced Fujita Scale value on this. We can tell you the preliminary finding is, it will be at least an EF scale 3. It may become that officially. We're getting some engineering help to hopefully finalize that intensity tomorrow.Goree says the storm was unusual for this part of the deep South. Yesterday's tornado in this area, Enterprise and other areas, over into Georgia were extremely powerful for this area of the country. Usually we see short-lived, smaller tornadoes that affect say one dwelling or more. But to see this school and other areas devastated by this powerful tornado is heartbreaking and really a rare sight fortunately for this area. He says this was an extremely long-lived tornadic super cell which even awed National Weather Service meteorologists.

The size of this storm was incredibly large. We seldom see tornados in the deep Southeast that are 200 yards wide or so. I think some of the video is out there of this storm and it's incredible. On our Doppler radars we rarely again get to see such a powerful storm signature as we did yesterday. Our meteorologists...were in awe of the shape, the structure and the intensity of the rotation in this super cell thunderstorm as it moved into this area.Goree says the new enhanced Fujita Scale is meant to be more practical. He said the earlier scale was more objective and looked more at wind speeds, but the new scale really reflects how bad was the damage whether than some exact wind damage measurement.So what does the National Weather Service look at to make their final determination?

On our new scale we use damage indicators such as trees - the number and percentage of the trees that were snapped, whether the bark is stripped off of the trees, indicators like that to determine what the power of the wind was. He says they also look at the strength of the buildings. This (Enterprise H.S.) is a very strong structure here and we saw some structural failure.Goree says the most powerful center of the vortex...moved through the center of the school and into the parking lot and across the stadium.It's a sad day for us at the National Weather Service...We're always saddened when we see death and injuries in the communities which we serve and we have to redouble our efforts to get people safe in the path of these terrible storms.

Widespread storms cause deaths in 3 states
By BRENDA GOODMAN Published: March 2, 2007

ATLANTA: A violent storm system that stretched nearly 1,000 miles from the Midwest to the Southeast has killed at least 20 people in three states, including 8 who died when what appeared to be a tornado caused the roof to collapse at a high school in Enterprise, Ala. on Thursday, state emergency management officials said.

At least 31 tornados have been reported over the last two days in Missouri, Illinois, Alabama, Georgia and Florida, the National Weather Service reported. The storm system has been blamed for nine deaths in Alabama, two in Georgia and one in Missouri.A tornado apparently touched down early today near the Sumter Regional Hospital in Americus, 117 miles south of Atlanta. The storm blew out the hospital's windows, tossed cars into trees and killed at least two people, but the extent of the damage remained unclear.We're still tying to assess everything, the Americus fire chief, Andy Belinc, told The Associated Press early this morning. Georgia's governor declared a state of emergency.Storms continued to lash at the area this morning. The weather service issued a tornado warning for coastal areas of North Carolina. In South Carolina, the Coast Guard prepared to search for six people on a small boat who sent a distress call during the storm, saying they were taking on water off the coast.

Today in Americas

In the Mississippi Delta, a juke joint keeps the blues alive U.S. Army secretary resigns Head of criticized U.S. Army medical center is fired On Thursday, students at Enterprise High School had just been ordered to take cover in hallways when fierce winds bore down around 1 p.m., plunging them into darkness and pounding them with falling debris.

The ceiling part fell on us, and rocks hit me on the back, said Ezekiel Jones, 17, a senior who was in the school gymnasium when the storm struck. I was thinking of my mom, my girlfriend, my sister and my friends. Everybody was screaming.Steven Carter, 16, a junior, said he was in the science wing when the lights went out.It happened fast, Steven said. There wasn't much warning.He said he could smell gas leaking from the Bunsen burners in the classrooms. A lot of kids were trapped, Steven said.Steven said he saw science teachers tending to some of the wounded with first-aid kits salvaged from the wrecked classrooms.Toni J. Kaminski, a spokeswoman for Medical Center Enterprise, said the hospital treated 50 to 60 people.We have seen a myriad of injuries, including a ruptured spleen, head trauma, chest trauma, broken bones, Ms. Kaminski said.Though the high school seems to have taken a direct hit, neighborhoods throughout Enterprise also reported extensive damage.

Jeanne Davis, 55, a clerk at the Army base at nearby Fort Rucker, said she rushed home after the winds stopped to find shingles torn off her roof and a two-by-four driven into the ground in her front yard.

Throughout Enterprise, which has a population of about 21,000 people, cars were upended, trees were snapped and homes flattened, with other reports of injuries coming from the downtown area. A state emergency management spokeswoman, Yasamie Richardson, said that in addition to those killed at the high school, one other person in Enterprise was also killed.Seth Hammett, speaker of the Alabama House, said one person died in Millers Ferry, about 80 miles northwest of Enterprise, where 12 to 15 trailer homes had been destroyed.In Georgia, the storms killed at least nine people and caused an unknown number of injuries, including six deaths in Baker County and two in Americus, Reuters reported, quoting Buzz Weiss, spokesman for the Georgia Emergency Management Agency.

In Missouri, a 7-year-old girl was killed and four members of her family were injured when a tornado flattened their mobile home near West Plains.Tanya Bricking Leach contributed reporting from Enterprise, Ala., and Maria Newman from New York.

Dozens die in Indonesia landslides
POSTED: 1140 GMT (1940 HKT), March 3, 2007

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) Landslides triggered by days of heavy rain killed at least 32 people in eastern Indonesia on Saturday, and scores more were believed to be buried under the mud, officials said.One social affairs ministry employee said he had received reports from amateur radio operators that 65 people had been killed on Flores island. The official, who was speaking on radio station el-Shinta, was not immediately reachable.Roads made inaccessible by a three-day deluge were complicating rescue operations and making compiling definitive tolls of the dead and missing difficult, said Frans Lebu Raya, a senior government official on the remote island.We have not been able to get heavy machinery to the villages, because landslides have also cut off the main road to the area, said Rustam Pakaya, the chief of the Health Department's Crisis Center in Indonesia's capital, Jakarta.

Many parts of the road also have collapsed.

Pakaya said he received a fax from the island reporting that landslides early Saturday killed at least 32 people in Cibal and Lambaleda districts, and that 20 people were missing and believed buried.State news agency Antara reported landslides occurring in at least 15 other villages or districts, leaving some houses buried and vehicles damaged. It said roads were blocked in 20 places.Instant noodles, canned fish, cooking oil and emergency tents were being distributed to some districts on the remote island, about 1,500 kilometers (930 miles) east of Jakarta, Antara reported.Seasonal downpours cause dozens of deadly landslides and flash floods each year in Indonesia, a vast chain of 17,000 islands where millions of people live in mountainous areas or near fertile flood plains.Last month, floods in Jakarta killed almost 100 people and paralyzed large sections of the city.

EU promises to rally efforts to push Mideast peace MAR 2,07

Benita Ferrero-Waldner,European Commissioner for External Relations and European
Neighbourhood Policy, said here Friday that the European Union (EU) is adamant to rally efforts to push forward the Mideast peace process. Waldner, who arrived here Thursday, made the pledge in a press conference on Friday at the end of her two-day visit to Egypt, the last stop of her four-leg tour that also took her to Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian territories. The EU welcomes the Mecca agreement reached recently between the two Palestinian mainstream movements of Fatah and Hamas on the formation of a national unity government, Waldner told the reporters.

The European commissioner noted that she would present a report on the outcome of her regional tour to an EU Foreign Ministers Council meeting, which will be held in Brussels on Monday for talks on the situation in the Mideast. Meanwhile, donor states to the Palestinians will also meet in Brussels on March 13 for talks on means of further backing the Palestinian people, she added. Regarding the EU-Egyptian ties, Waldner denied that the union was seeking to impose reforms or intervene in the Egyptian affairs via the European Neighbourhood policy plan for Egypt. The EU action plan was meant to reinfroce the Egyptian government's program on political, economic and social reforms, she said. Source: Xinhua

Israel criticizes Russian-Syrian arms deal MAR 2,07

TEL AVIV, Israel, March 2 (UPI) Israeli officials Friday criticized Russia for agreeing to provide Syria with advanced missiles that could penetrate Israel's Merkava tanks. The Russian AT-15 anti-tank missiles have a range of 6 kilometers, beyond the Merkavas', and can overcome some of the Israeli measures designed to protect the tanks. Officials are concerned the arms would reach the Lebanese Hezbollah. During last year's war in Lebanon, Russian anti-tank missiles were fired at Israeli tanks and damaged some. The Jerusalem Post Friday quoted Vice Premier Shimon Peres as saying the supply of arms to Syria encouraged Damascus to turn to war.Syria is moving between peace overtures and its temptations to go to war, to which arms supply is an incentive, Peres added. Former Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said that Russian President Vladimir Putin seemingly decided to restore Russia's Soviet-empire status, and was playing with fire.The military intelligence Sunday told the Cabinet the Syrians are using Hezbollah, Hamas and the Islamic Jihad to fight Israel although Damascus is indicating a desire for a peace process. Director of Military Intelligence Maj. Gen. Amos Yadlin told the ministers, The prospects for a Syrian-initiated full scale war are low, but the chances it would react militarily to Israeli military moves are high. The Mossad secret service said Syria is trying to improve its defensive military capability and is more ready to take risks and retaliate with force to Israeli moves. In the past, Israel sent F-15s over President Bashar Assad's home in northern Syria to signal to him to stop aiding militant groups that attack Israel.

Israel training for war with Iran, Syria?
Palestinians claim army conducted exercises in West Bank city
March 2, 2007 By Aaron Klein - WorldNetDaily.com

TEL AVIV – Israel this week conducted military training exercises in a Palestinian city for a possible war scenario against Syria or Iran, top Palestinian intelligence officials claimed to WND. The Israeli government denied the claim. The Israel Defense Forces today completed a week-long, large-scale operation in Nablus, the largest West Bank Arab city. The operation, codenamed Hot Winter, utilized four IDF battalions, reservists and border police guards and purportedly was aimed at arresting top wanted terror leaders in the city. Nablus is a stronghold of several major Palestinian terror organizations, most notably the Iranian-backed Islamic Jihad and the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the declared military wing of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party. The Brigades and Islamic Jihad are responsible for every suicide bombing in Israel the past two years. During the
large operation, the IDF did not arrest any top terror suspects, but the army said it found three weapons factories as well as an arms cache. One top Palestinian intelligence official said he found the operation unusual in that it involved a rotation of Israeli forces and didn't achieve anything militarily as far as fighting terrorism.

On the ground you had a massive number of soldiers who seemed to be conducting drills. They were in the city the entire week with units switching. Normally week-long military operations utilize the same units and don't keep switching troops. In the end, after a week of a major military presence, what did the IDF get as far as fighting terror in Nablus? commented the top official. The operation was very clearly an urban warfare training exercise, likely for a confrontation with Syria or Iran, the official claimed. Another top Palestinian intelligence official told WND, Nablus happens to resemble very closely as a model the city of Damascus.A spokeswoman for the IDF denied Palestinian claims the large operation was for war training. She said the Israeli army arrested 11 militants in Nablus this week, although she said they were lower-level and did not include any members of Israel's wanted list.

Abu Nasser, the second-in-command of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in Nablus, told WND no members of his group or the Islamic Jihad terror organization were arrested during the Israeli operation. It didn't feel like we were even being targeted, Abu Nasser said. The claim of Israeli training follows reports in the Israeli media last week Syria, aided by Iranian officers, has been boosting its army and navy. The reports, denied by Damascus, claimed Syria last week was moving troops closer to the border with Israel. Israeli security officials told WND Israel is not expecting confrontations with Iran or Syria. Speaking theoretically, they said if any war breaks out involving Iran, they expect Syria, Hezbollah and Palestinian terrorists to join the fray and attack Israel. The security officials said the greatest threat Syria poses to the Jewish state are the country's missiles. They noted Syria recently test-fired two Scud-D surface-to-surface missiles, which have a range of about 250 miles, covering most Israeli territory. The officials said the Syrian missile test was coordinated with Iran and is believed to have been successful. It is not known what type of warhead the missiles had.

In addition to longer range Scuds, Syria is in possession of shorter range missiles such as 220 millimeter and 305 millimeter rockets, some of which have been passed on to Hezbollah. According to information received by Israel, Russia is set to conclude a deal worth several hundred million dollars transferring thousands of advanced anti-tank missiles to Syria. Anti-tank missiles used by Hezbollah during Israel's war in Lebanon last summer devastated Israeli tanks and caused the highest number of Israeli troop casualties during the 34 days of military confrontations. Last week, a senior officer from the intelligence unit of the Israeli Defense Forces announced Hezbollah is stronger today than before the 2006 Lebanon war.

Hezbollah has reinforced and it is stronger today than it was before the war in Lebanon, Gen. Yossi Beidatz, head of the IDF's intelligence research department, told the Knesset. During the war in Lebanon, Hezbollah fired more than 3,000 rockets into northern Israel, killing 39 civilians and devastating many northern towns. Beidatz also said Syria is reinforcing its military to prepare for the possibility of a new armed conflict in the region.

Israel Celebrates Purim Holiday Under Tight Security
By Robert Berger Jerusalem - 03 March 2007

Israel is celebrating the biblical holiday of Purim under tight security. As Robert Berger reports from VOA's Jerusalem bureau, Israel has restricted the movement of Palestinians amid concerns of possible terror attacks. An effigy of the ancient Persian King Haman hangs from a lamp post at entrance to an Ultra-Orthodox Jewish neighborhood in Jerusalem, 2 Mar 2007 It is a weekend of parties and celebrations as Israelis mark the holiday of Purim with costume parties in homes and community centers and on the streets. The holiday marks the deliverance of the Jews from annihilation in ancient Persia some 2,400 years ago, as told in the biblical Book of Esther. Security is extremely tight for the holiday. The army has sealed off the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and Palestinians have been barred from entering Israel. Police say they have intelligence information that Palestinian militants could try to disrupt the holiday with terrorist attacks. It has happened before. A suicide bomber blew up a Purim parade in Tel Aviv in 1996, killing 13 people. But that hasn't stopped the celebrations this year. It's a party. Everybody's coming dressed up as something, says Amit Gabbai, a Jerusalem high school student, who was dressed up as character from a Hollywood hit. Well, I'm wearing this beautiful green dress and I put on a wig. And I'm dressed as Princess Fiona from Shrek 1.Are children worried about the threat of terror?

Yes and no, says Gabbai. No because, I don't know, I live here and it's usual for me and I know where not to go and I go to safe places, and yes because I mean everybody's dressing up, everybody's putting masks on and like carrying fake guns, and the terrorists could take advantage of that and dress up and, you know, do something bad.Police and soldiers have stepped up their presence at the borders and crowded public places. Despite the threats, police have urged the public to come out and celebrate.

Stocks fall amid rise in yen; Dow posts worst performance in more than 4 yearsBy Associated Press - Friday, March 2, 2007

NEW YORK Stocks stumbled in the final session of a tumultuous week Friday as the yen rallied against the dollar and concerns about the U.S. economy still dogged investors after Tuesday’s huge drop.

The Dow Jones industrials logged their worst weekly performance in more than four years; until this week, the stock market had gone more than 45 months without a drop of more than 2 percent in a single session. The Dow, as it had Thursday, poked tentatively into positive territory Friday before retreating as the yen furthered its gains and investors failed to shake their unease. Larger economic concerns such as the ascendent yen have dominated Wall Street for much of the week after Tuesday’s worldwide selloff that sent the Dow down 416 points and rattled investor confidence about the state of the U.S. economy. Neil Massa, senior trader at MFC Global Investment Management, said stocks wobbled Friday after the yen broke through a key resistance level of 116.80.

The dollar fell 0.92 percent to 116.86 yen.

Concerns lingered about a decline in the yen carry trade, which refers to the process of borrowing yen to acquire assets with greater yields in other currencies. A slowdown could hurt liquidity worldwide. Concerns about Japanese interest rates also weighed on investors. A well-received profit report from American International Group Inc. kept the Dow industrials from falling further Friday; the insurer and pharmaceutical company Merck & Co. were the only two advancers among the index’s 30 stocks. Merck, which received a mixed verdict Friday in a trial over its former painkiller Vioxx, finished up 20 cents at $44.19.

According to preliminary calculations, the Dow fell 120.24, or 0.98 percent, to 12,114.10. The Dow has fallen seven of the last eight sessions. Broader stock indicators also fell. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 16.00, or 1.14 percent, to 1,387.17 and the Nasdaq composite index slid 36.21, or 1.51 percent, to 2,368.00. For the week, the Dow fell 3.3 percent, the S&P 500 lost 4.4 percent and the Nasdaq fell 5.9 percent. For the Dow and the S&P 500, it was their worst weekly performance since the week ended July 19, 2002. And for the Nasdaq, it was the poorest weekly showing since the week ended Sept. 21, 2001, the first week of trading after the 9/11 terror attacks.

Bond prices rose sharply as economic concerns lingered and raised hopes for an interest rate cut.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note fell to 4.51 percent from 4.55 percent late Thursday. The dollar was mixed against other major currencies, while gold prices fell sharply. Light, sweet crude settled down 36 cents to $61.64 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange after settling at a more than two month high Thursday. I think looking at the world economies as a whole it just seems like growth is slowing across the board, or at least that’s the impression, he said. Diane Dercher, chief economist at Waddell & Reed, said investors are trying to sort through the myriad signals the markets have given off this week.Fundamentally, I don’t think a lot has changed this week and I think it’s been more of a psychological re-evaluation of risk and a lot of this is focused around what’s happened in the Asian markets, she said. There is a renewed focus on how weak the economy is going to be and the data that we’ve gotten this week have been very mixed and that just adds to confusion about how weak the economy is going to be, Dercher said.

Investors seemed somewhat cheered by the final Reuters/University of Michigan consumer sentiment reading for February, even as it fell to 91.3 from 96.9 from January. Earlier this week, the Conference Board said its own measure of consumer confidence reached a 5 1/2 year high.

With little of the economic data that has at turns boosted and deflated sentiment this week, investors again looked abroad for direction. Performance of overseas markets has taken on renewed importance this week after a nearly 9 percent drop in the Shanghai Composite Index helped touch off the worldwide selling and sent U.S. stocks reeling. The major U.S. indexes each lost more than 3 percent Tuesday, erasing $632 billion in shareholder equity, according to S&P. St. Louis Federal Reserve President William Poole said in remarks prepared for a speech Friday in Santiago, Chile, that rising energy prices wouldn’t necessarily lead to an economic slowdown if monetary policy were laid out carefully. With trading less frenetic than in previous days, investors had some time to parse individual stocks as they looked for bargains.

AIG’s fourth-quarter profit rose sharply from a year earlier when the world’s largest insurer spent $1.64 billion to settle charges over its accounting practices. Profits were slightly below Wall Street’s forecast though investors were likely pleased by the company’s announcement it would repurchase $5 billion in stock in 2007. The company also is targeting a 20 percent annual increase in its dividend.

AIG rose $2.13, or 3.2 percent, to $69.54. Dell Inc. rose 17 cents to $23.18 after the computer maker’s profit fell 33 percent amid weak laptop sales. While revenue fell more than expected, the overall results weren’t as sour as some investors had feared. Gap Inc.

fell 63 cents, or 3.3 percent, to $18.40 after the company’s fourth-quarter earnings dropped 35 percent amid problems that include its newest chain, which the company plans to close. Declining issues outnumbered advancers by about 3 to 1 on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume came to 1.86 billion shares, compared with an unusually heavy 2.22 billion shares traded Thursday. The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fell 15.59, or 1.97 percent, to 775.44. Overseas, Japan’s Nikkei stock average closed down 1.35 percent, while the Shanghai Composite Index was up 1.23 percent and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index added 0.49 percent. Britain’s FTSE 100 finished higher by less than 0.01 percent, Germany’s DAX index fell 0.56 percent, and France’s CAC-40 slid 0.62 percent.