Stocks trim losses after global rate cuts

Stock markets trimmed deep losses on Wednesday after coordinated interest rate cuts from central banks across the world and Wall Street looked set for a postive start.

Cuts from the U.S. Federal Reserve, European Central Bank, Bank of England and People's Bank of China, among others, were designed to inject confidence into markets reeling from the worst financial crisis in nearly 80 years.

The moves helped pare back the steep losses that were sweeping the world earlier, but failed to erase the downward trend.

MSCI's benchmark world index was down 2 percent compared with losses of 2.9 percent when the cuts were announced.

The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 was down 1.4 percent some 10 minutes after the move compared with losses of around 3.8 percent beforehand.