Financial markets continued to recover some of the ground they lost earlier this week as investors and institutions responded to reassurance from policymakers in the aftermath of Tuesday's appalling acts of terrorism.

US government bond trading restarted on Thursday and the market rallied, partly in a show of confidence and partly on the expectation that the US will cut interest rates to buoy consumer confidence. A rate cut will have a positive effect on bond prices, since they move inversely to rate-driven bond yields.