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US, European markets affected by recession news

06 March 2009 07:40 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Vahab Rzayev - APA-Economics. Stock markets around the world took a beating Thursday from a spate of bad recession news, worries over the financial sector and a deafening silence from China on much hoped-for new stimulus measures.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted 281.40 points (4.09 percent) to end at 6,594.44, its lowest close since April 1997.
The Nasdaq composite shed 54.15 points (4.00 percent) to 1,299.59 while the broad-market Standard & Poor’s 500 skidded to its lowest level since September 1996, dropping 30.32 points (4.25 percent) to 682.55.
Among key US stocks, GM skidded 15.45 percent to 1.86 dollars on the latest warning from its auditors and the US finance sector was battered. Mega bank Citigroup shares fell below one dollar before closing 9.7 percent lower at 1.02 dollars.
US bonds rallied strongly on a renewed flight to safety. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury bond fell to 2.819 percent from 3.011 percent Wednesday and that on the 30-year bond dropped to 3.505 percent against 3.698 percent. Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions.
In Europe, losses were substantial and widespread, with news of a sharp downgrade to already weak ECB economic forecasts further darkening the outlook.
In London, the FTSE 100 index of leading shares lost 3.18 percent at 3,529.86, in Frankfurt the DAX shed 5.02 percent at 3,695.49 and in Paris the CAC 40 fell 3.96 percent to 2,569.63.
European markets tumbled after interest rate cuts by the Bank of England and the European Central Bank (ECB) in the face of increasingly dire economic news.