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US, European markets down

05 February 2010 09:21 (UTC +04:00)

Baku - APA-Economics. European stocks plunged on Thursday as investor fears over rising debt levels in some eurozone member states became more acute and US data offered scant hope for a recovery in the jobs market there, AFP reported.
London’s benchmark FTSE 100 index plunged 2.17 per cent to 5,139.31 points, the Paris CAC 40 ended sharply down by 2.75 per cent at 3,689.25 points and the Frankfurt Dax plummeted 2.45 per cent to 5,533.24 points.
But Madrid led the pack, with the Ibex-35 index there closing down 5.94 per cent as investors grew increasingly nervous that countries like Spain and Portugal could be in for the same troubles as debt-ridden Greece.
The DJ Euro Stoxx 50 index of top eurozone shares crashed 3.46 per cent.
Mining companies and banks were among the biggest losers on Thursday after commodity prices suffered from a strengthening US dollar.
Shares in British bank Barclays fell 7.84 per cent to 272.20 pence, while mining giant Fresnillo plunged 5.23 per cent to 671 pence.
There were also jitters over an anxiously-awaited US monthly unemployment report due on Friday, while data out on Thursday showed that initial US claims for unemployment insurance rose by more than expected last week to 480,000.

The unemployment rate in the United States is currently at 10 per cent.
Wall Street meanwhile tracked the plunges in Europe, with the Dow Jones down 2.02 per cent and the Nasdaq falling 2.10 per cent in afternoon trading.
There was a similar trend on other European stock markets, with Brussels falling 2.96 per cent, Milan down 3.45 per cent and Zurich tumbling 2.40 per cent.
In foreign exchange trade, the European single currency tumbled to the lowest point since June after the European Central Bank kept its interest rate steady but warned eurozone economies to get their public finances in order.
n Asia on Thursday, the crisis surrounding Toyota’s recall of millions of cars around the world weighed on Japanese stocks. The Tokyo stock market lost 0.46 per cent and Hong Kong shed 1.84 per cent in value.