The last optimist fights on – for now

Could last week's panic have been a capitulation, when even the most optimistic of optimists threw in the towel and stocks hit bottom?

Everyone was expecting "the Crash of 2008" last Monday, as Gerard Baker noted in The Times. But US equities had their best week since early February, with the S&P 500 gaining over 3% and continuing to climb on Monday.

The Fed's rescue of Bear Stearns staved off a bank failure that "threatened to split Wall Street asunder", says The Economist. Along with the improved JP Morgan offer and the Fed's various attempts to improve liquidity in the financial system, it has fuelled hopes that the worst of the subprime crisis may soon be over.

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