Global Markets and Economic Update

FOREIGN STOCK MARKETS: Stock index trends in native currencies and in dollars adjusted for currency fluctuations. The dollar-adjusted returns are what U.S. investors would realize.

Source: Morgan Stanley Capital International

MEXICAN STOCKS

* For Mexican investors, things have gone from bad to worse. The Bolsa index tumbled 67.85 points to 2,362.03 on Tuesday, its lowest level since early December. The latest selloff was prompted by the apparent kidnaping of the chairman of banking giant Banamex by extortionists.

* While unrelated to the political uprising in the southern state of Chiapas earlier this year, the latest apparent kidnaping points up the risks to Mexican businesses from political and social upheaval. In effect, many investors are now lowering the prices they’re willing to pay for Mexican stocks to reflect the return of those risks--a big change from the heady post-NAFTA days.

The Bolsa Index

Tuesday closes: 2,362.03

Source: D.A. Campbell

SPOTLIGHT: ZAIRE

Zaire:, which abandoned an economic recovery program devised by the International Monetary Fund in 1990, was declared bankrupt by the World Bank. Many economists say the country has been virtually bankrupt for nearly a decade under the corrupt regime of longtime President Mobutu Sese Seko.

Source: Bank of America; World Information Services