After the world's major governments agreed to urgently confront the worst global economic crisis in decades, investors waited anxiously to see the markets' judgment when the trading week begins in Asia, Reuters reported.
Governments from Washington to Beijing agreed Saturday to a raft of fiscal and monetary steps to rescue the global economy but it was left to individual governments to tailor their response to their particular circumstances and troubled industries.
In the United States, the lame-duck status of President George W. Bush's administration made guessing the likely ability of the Group of 20 economic summit to restore market confidence tougher.
President-elect Barack Obama sent emissaries to the weekend event, and issued a statement in support of a coordinated response to the global financial crisis.
The post-summit statement from the grouping of major industrialized and developing countries contained a kitchen sink of reform pledges aimed at soothing volatile markets and calming consumers' worries.
It stated that all financial markets, products and participants will be subject to supervision, vowed tougher accounting rules, a review of compensation practices and greater cooperation between national regulators.
Even the long-running Doha round of free-trade talks was given a new lease on life.
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper termed the declaration enough to "give the markets reassurance."
Finance ministers were told to develop specific plans for implementing the recommendations. The first set of actions is to be completed by the end of March, and a follow-up meeting will be held by the end of April.
Still, an agreement to talk some more in the new year might not be quite what markets have in mind.
"In terms of the substance, it's remarkably bland," said Edwin Truman, analyst at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington.
U.S. investors took a "show-me" approach on Friday, dumping stocks to guarantee a second straight losing week for major indices. Friday's close in the S& P 100 index was the lowest on a weekly basis since 2003, and the broad-based index is down almost 10 percent in November alone.
In contrast to the promises of the world leaders, the final handful of big third-quarter U.S. earnings reports due this week are likely to come footnoted with warnings about tough times immediately ahead.