US Market Summary on March28th, 2008

Dollar gained vs majors on news U.S. economic growth weak but positive in 4Q; data stymied EUR's retracement towards historical high vs USD, already bucked overnight by largely technical factors. Squeeze out of short USD positions last week has forced short-term speculative community to re-chase the foreign currencies this week, said Brown Brothers Harriman analysts. Quarter-end and FY-end considerations for many businesses and governments add to market's volatility - and inability to push through major barriers. 4Q GDP grew at unrevised 0.6% annual rate, as expected, in a slowdown from 4.9% pace in 3Q.

Late in New York, EUR/USD at 1.5769 vs 1.5844 Wednesday, USD/JPY at 99.77 vs 99.15, GBP/USD at 2.0036 vs 2.0081 and EUR/JPY at 157.31 vs 157.08. Tamer-than-expected interest in Fed's first Treasury swap auction took wind out of bond market's rally, though weakening stocks helped boost front end of curve late; 2-year yield down 1.0 bp at 1.71%, 10-year +4.3 bps at 3.54%. Stocks down on disappointing revenue for software giant Oracle and concerns that Google may be in similar situation, while financials such as Lehman Brothers exacerbated market declines.

Oracle down 7.2%, Google down 3.1%, Lehman Brothers down 8.9%. Dow ended off 0.97%, Nasdaq off 1.9%, Philly semicons down 1.5%. June Comex gold fell 20 cents to $954/oz, overcoming a mildly negative day to end little changed on short covering and a jump in oil prices. Nymex May crude settled $1.68 higher at $107.58/bbl, led by late season demand for heating oil futures, which settled at record high.