Global equity market rally sparked by the massive fiscal stimulus plan from China proved to be short-lived in US trading hours. Recession-weary investors saw the extension of equity market pop from Asia and Europe into US indices as just another opportunity to pare back long positions, with doubt over the impact of China stimulus package on broder US economy and disappointing tail end of US earnings season souring bullish optimism. In spite of the last-minute recovery from session lows, Dow Industrials ended Monday's trading hours down 0.8% while S&P and Nasdaq shed over 1%.

The notable US large-caps reporting afterhours - Sands Resorts (LVS), Starbucks (SBUX), and Liz Claiborne (LIZ) - disappointed investors across the board, with leisure travel and retail consumer sector names proving to be among the most vulnerable to an economic downturn. After closing a number of US locations, Starbucks was looking to improve its same-store sales number and consolidate its customer base. However, neither Starbucks brand loyalty nor consolidation were sufficient to negate the impact of economic hardship on consumer discretionary budgets as SBUX Q4 same store sales were reported down by 8%. Top line and bottom line of $0.10 and $2.5B were also short of analyst estimates of $0.13 and $2.58B respectively. Additionally, management announced plans to cut CAPEX for FY09 and withdrew its EPS guidance, sending SBUX shares down by over 2.5% in after hours session.

Despite beating estimates on the bottom line, Liz Claiborne narrowed its full-year guidance, saying it now expected to earn an adjusted profit of $1.02-$1.07/share vs $1.05 consensus estimates. Apparel maker also saw its Q3 revenue drop by nearly 16% to $1.01B from $1.21B in Q3 of last year.

Finally, Sands Resorts reported conspicuously late relative to its announced earnings call, posting a $1.11B revenue vs $1.15B expected and earning just $0.02/share on adjusted basis vs $0.11 expected. Management cited a broad slowdown in casino traffic as well as a need to extend unoccupied hotel rooms as comps in order to maintain high occupancy rate. LVS was also said to be in the process of raising about $2B in capital to weather business downturn - all prompting investors to sell shares afterhours, dropping the stock by over 6%.

Front month S&P futures initially opened sharply lower, falling as much as 2%, but have since pared its losses toward the unchanged-positive range on the session. Volatility is likely to be down on Tuesday in light of the Veterans Day holiday. Among the first-tier names reporting earnings are Tyco and TJX Companies Inc. Security and safety equipment manufacturer TYC gained as much as 10% in afterhours trading on Monday, with traders remaining upbeat ahead of earnings following last quarter's strong performance as well as elevated FY08 guidance and quarterly dividend. Discount apparel retailer TJX was last seen guiding Q3 EPS toward the high-end of $0.55-0.58 estimates and is also expected to see strong earnings data tomorrow amid heightened consumer appetite for discount apparel brands.

Over in Asia, major bourses were notably subdued after Monday's rally, initially trading sharply to the downside before paring some of those losses. Just after the mid-day break in Tokyo, the Nikkei climbed within 1.5% decline of the prior session after being down as much as 4% earlier on renewed concerns over slumping domestic consumer demand and strength of local currency impacting foreign export appetite. Particularly sharp declines were seen in Citizen Holdings - worlds largest watch manufacturer - as it traded down over 8% after cutting its fiscal year profit targets by over 30%. Canon shares were also moderately weaker, dropping as much as 6% on persistent investor pessimism that followed last week's report of company's first drop in profits in overnine years. Tokai Carbon was particularly volatile in Tokyo, falling by as much as 16% on announced delays for plans to boost output for carbon black - material used to reinforce car tires. Lastly, Toyota Motors echoed automaker hardships seen in the US, giving up over 4% on announcement to postpone plans for adding production capacity at the Kyushu plant.

The mid-session rally in Nikkei, Hang Seng and Kospi toward the unchanged levels was notably absent in Australia's S&P/ASX index in light of poor overall economic fundamentals reported Down Under that saw a record low in business confidence and a 7-year low in business conditions. Australia was recenly seen as being possibly immune to the threat of an economic contraction, however the outlook for the first recession since 1991 is increasingly more likely as the slowdown in China becomes more pronounced. Today's session saw Macquarie, Australia's biggest securities firm, and Wesfarmers,Aussie retailing giant, decline by over 8% on the back of the disappointing confidence figures. Additionally, Babcock and Brown sank over 20% again - for an overall 50% two-day loss - on concerns about its ability to sell assets after the company relinquished rights to manage B&B Capital unit.

In currencies, major European based pares retracted their post China stimulus gains. EUR/USD fell in early US session and consolidated its losses just above 1.27 level while GBP/USD also closed its week-opening gain, selling down toward 1.5550 November support. USD/JPY remains rangebound, contained by technically pivotal 96.50 and 99.50 levels while EUR/JPY and GBP/JPY also track consolidation patterns of European currencies, with downside discourage by pivots around 122.20 and 151.00 respectively. Commodity-sensitive Aussie currency continues to trade with a heavy tone, selling down beyond yesterday's gap on poor economic data, while USD/CAD is still struggling taking out 1.2030 in spite of the first test of the $60 mark in crude contract.

- Crude oil is lower by more than 2% and is tracking the declines in Asian equities. Despite the overall weakness on the session, crude oil prices bounced off of the session lows below $60.50 and moved above $61.00/bbl. Earlier today, Qatar's Oil Minister noted that oil prices needed to remain above $70/bbl in order to encourage industry investment and that oil prices below $70 could lead to future supply shortages. The official added that it was too early to speculate if OPEC should make further cuts to production. Spot Gold is little changed and has swung between gains and losses on the session. Shanghai copper is lower by more than 3%, despite the marginal gains being seen in Chinese equities.