TORONTO -- U.S. stock markets will be shut today for a third consecutive session but even when trading resumes it will take a long time for the shattered brokerages that feed the system to be fully operational

The television advertising industry has ground to a virtual standstill as major Canadian and U.S. networks pre-empt commercials to devote non-stop coverage to the terrorist assault.

Events were cancelled, meetings delayed and deals put on hold. Most people returned to work Wednesday, but many who did admitted that their minds were not entirely on their jobs.

In the eye of a storm, it looks and feels like the world will never again be the same. And no wonder, in the current crisis.

The United States and the world are still in shock. That's not only because of the scope of the disaster - the destruction of the World Trade Center and part of the Pentagon, and the massive loss of life - but also because of the element of surprise.

One of Canada's best known economists predicts that Tuesday's terrorist attacks will tip the U.S. economy into recession, although most experts are more optimistic about the resilience of consumer confidence.

Gold is not the barometer of fear it once was, observers say, citing the relatively short-lived, tepid response of bullion markets to the horrific terrorist attacks on the United States, which closed down the heart of the U.S. financial system.

The world's largest insurers have placed early, tentative estimates of at least $10-billion (U.S.) to $20-billion on losses related to terrorist attacks on New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon in Washington.

New York's World Trade Center, which was destroyed Tuesday by a terrorist attack, was collateral for $946-million (U.S.) in mortgage bonds that may now be in danger of default, analysts say.

Calgary - Oil prices retreated further from the highs they reached in the wake of terror attacks on the United States, as fears about supply disruptions were eased by official reassurances.

Canada's equity markets will reopen this morning after a day when the brokerage community sat on its hands even though most companies' trading systems were capable of full operations.

Buried under tons of rubble in the basement of New York's World Trade Center is a king's ransom in gold and silver.

The bullion is stored in underground vaults owned by Comex, a division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, where five big metals players, including ScotiaMocatta, the metals trading arm of Bank of Nova Scotia, clear their trades.

Washington - The destruction of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's field office in New York is likely to hinder, but not halt, major investigations by America's top market regulator, former SEC officials and lawyers said Wednesday.

The Canadian-owned Wall Street office tower that houses the Nasdaq stock exchange is expected to survive the fallout from the two collapsed World Trade Center towers despite earlier fears that it might collapse.

Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co. chairman Philip Purcell said "the vast majority" of its 3,500 World Trade Center employees survived the terrorist attack on the buildings, as other firms searched for missing workers.

Notice from Nasdaq Stock Market chief executive officer Hardwick Simmons on its Web site.

The "vast majority" of Thomson Corp.'s more than 200 employees working at New York's destroyed World Trade Center are safe, the Toronto information services company said Wednesday.

VANCOUVER - Tighter border security in the wake of deadly terrorist attacks in the United States is expected to lead to sharply higher costs for Canadian companies shipping everything from auto parts to softwood lumber into the key U.S. market.

OTTAWA - The slumping travel industry is bracing for dwindling sales and higher costs in the wake of this week's terrorist attacks in the United States, with the first corporate casualty already being claimed.

Calgary - The terrorist attacks on U.S. targets on Tuesday have turned the heat back up on Talisman Energy Inc. and its controversial oil play in Sudan, the North African country with a radical Islamic government that has been accused in the past of providing a safe haven for terrorists.