Asian stock markets recorded sharp gains Wednesday, helped by a jump in commodity prices and hopes that the U.S. banking system is showing sings of buoyancy.  In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 stock average jumped 2.1% to 9,991.49 and the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong surged more than 4% to close at 18,785.66.  Japanese investors shrugged off a report that suggested core machinery orders, a closely watched indicator of corporate capital spending, plunged to a 22-year low in April. South Korea's benchmark Kospi jumped 3.1% and India's Sensex added 2.3%.   

Yesterday, Wall Street responded with a yawn to Obama Administration's announcement that 10 of the largest banks could repay $68 billion of government bailout cash.  Although Treasury Secretary Geithner, appearing before the Senate Appropriations Committee, noted the repayment of the bailout money was a sign of "financial repair," stocks swung back and forth in a narrow range, signaling

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Goldman Sachs is out with a interesting downgrade to Sell on Microchip Tech (NASDAQ:MCHP) noting their checks indicate the market is starting to shift away from its core strengths, leading them to reevaluate the story. Firm says they have done extensive field work on the microcontroller market, prompted in part by Microchip’s proposal on October 2, 2008, to acquire Atmel’s MCU business. They have conducted more than a dozen meetings and calls with industry participants and contacts. They also spent two full days at the Embedded Systems conference in Boston on October 27-28, meeting with dozens of companies in the MCU ecosystem to garner insight into the state of the market. The slowdown in Microchip’s core growth and impact from increasing competition in MCUs is at the center of the downgrade to Sell from Neutral as well as a reduction in estimates and price target.GSCO expects Microchip’s growth ...