itsmeeeeeee

Title
Stock markets plunge worldwide

Link
Stock markets plunge worldwide - Yahoo! News
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Excerpt

Stock markets plunge worldwide

By TOBY ANDERSON, AP Business Writer 1 hour, 5 minutes ago

LONDON - Stocks fell sharply worldwide Monday following declines on Wall Street last week amid investor pessimism over the U.S. government's stimulus plan to prevent a recession.

U.S. markets were closed for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, but the downbeat mood from last week's market declines there circled through Europe, Asia and the Americas. Britain's benchmark FTSE-100 slumped 5.5 percent to 5,578.20, France's CAC-40 Index tumbled 6.8 percent to 4,744.15, and Germany's blue-chip DAX 30 plunged 7.2 percent to 6,790.19...

In Asia, India's benchmark stock index tumbled 7.4 percent, while Hong Kong's blue-chip Hang Seng index plummeted 5.5 percent to 23,818.86, its biggest percentage drop since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

Canadian stocks fell as well, with the S&P/TSX composite index on the Toronto Stock Exchange down 4 percent in early afternoon trading. In Brazil, stocks plunged 6.9 percent on the main index of Sao Paulo's Bovespa exchange.

Investors dumped shares because they were skeptical that an economic stimulus plan President Bush announced Friday would shore up the economy that has been battered by problems in its housing and credit markets. The plan, which requires approval by Congress, calls for about $145 billion worth of tax relief to encourage consumer spending.

"It's another horrible day," said Francis Lun, a general manager at Fulbright Securities in Hong Kong. "Today it's because of disappointment that the U.S. stimulus (package) is too little, too late and investors feel it won't help the economy recover."

Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 index slid 3.9 percent to close at 13,325.94 points, its lowest close in more than two years. China's Shanghai Composite index plunged 5.1 percent, partly on worries about mainland Chinese banks' exposure to risky U.S. mortgage investments.

"People are certainly nervous about a potential recession in the U.S. spilling over to the rest of the world," said David Cohen, Director of Asian Economic Forecasting at Action Economics in Singapore.

"Maybe there's still some wariness about politicians are able to come up with a compromise and act sufficiently quickly" on a stimulus package, Cohen said. "I think the impact would be marginal anyway."

Investors took cues from the negative reaction to the president's plan on Wall Street on Friday, when the Dow Jones industrial average slid 0.5 percent to 12,099.30, bringing its loss for the year so far to nearly 9 percent.

Traders also have shrugged off assurances from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke that the U.S. central bank is ready to act aggressively — which means a likely big interest rate cut later this month — to help the sagging economy.

Some analysts predict that Asia won't suffer dramatically from a U.S. recession because increased trade and investment within Asia has made the region less reliant on the United States than in the past. Excluding Japan, 43 percent of Asia's exports go to other nations in the region, Lehman Brothers calculates, up from 37 percent in 1995.

But on Monday, uncertainty and pessimism reigned.

In Tokyo trading, exporters got hit hard, partly because of the yen's recent strength against the dollar. Toyota Motor Corp. lost 3.3 percent and Honda Motor Co. sank 3.4 percent.

Shares of Bank of China dropped 6.4 percent in Hong Kong after the South China Morning Post newspaper reported that the bank is expected to announce a "significant write-down" in U.S. subprime mortgage securities, citing unidentified sources. In Shanghai, the bank's stock declined 4.1 percent.

India's the benchmark Sensex index fell 1,353 points, or 7.4 percent — its second-biggest percentage drop ever — to 17,605.35 points. At one point, it was down nearly 11 percent.

The decline hit companies across the board, with power utility Reliance Energy Ltd. falling 16.4 percent. Major software company Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. slid 7.6 percent

"A gloomy U.S. climate has affected the global markets. Even if those markets recover, it will take sometime for the recovery to reach India because today's fall has been so drastic," said Jayant Pai, of the Mumbai investment company IL&FS Ltd.

Still, Pai and others suggested that the declines could lead to a buying opportunity.

"The sell-off today takes us close to the bottom," she said.

Since the start of the year, Japan's Nikkei index has declined 13 percent, while Hong Kong's blue-chip index is down more than 14 percent. Even China's Shanghai index — which nearly doubled last year — has fallen 6.6 percent over the same period and nearly 20 percent from its all-time closing high on Oct. 16.

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Comment:

if we go down - we're takin' the rest of ya with us, damnit!

that'll teach ya for investing in our greed!


the dow jones industrial average futures for tomorrow have already dropped 546 points or 4.5 percent. all of last year's gains have already been wiped out.

and when/if you hear any optimistic talk that "we may be close to the bottom" - keep in mind that EVEN IF they can get banks, etc, NOT to reset the subprime loans (which so far, they are failing miserably to convince them to do) that foreclosures are STILL expected to RISE in 2008...

and that 500,000 MORE americans are at risk of losing their homes as $367 billion worth of adjustable-rate subprime mortgages reset to higher interest rates in 2008 and 2009.

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Malkavian

Sensex? Sounds kinky. Must be one of those Kamasutra things... 'Sensex is going down' doesn't sound as bad as 'market plunge'. Clever Indian marketing.

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Woof!

BillCosby

Sounds like some bargains coming up..............

I have a couple things I have been looking @...........

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Preventive war is not war!!!!Counter-terror is not terror

Dawnling

yep. time to buy

Dianekkdi

Indeed.

Tomorrow is supposed to be a very bad day or huge bargain day depending on perspective.

Who wants to take a gander? I say -300 to -500 points? Will there be a rescue effort? What is it they call it -- an influx of liquidity?

All said and done -- a close at -300?

Am I being optimistic or pessimistic?

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Reinvestigate 9/11
Impeach......Prosecute......Imprison

"...The force of public opinion cannot be resisted when permitted freely to be expressed...."
--Thomas Jefferson

Dawnling

just for fun I say 400...
and, buy Stem, Inc.

DRS112

maybe...but if these last few posts are any indicator of the market as a whole than it may rise....Seems you guys are pretty sure that these stocks will go back up....We shall see I suppose.

Dawnling

I am typing as if I have the moolah

itsmeeeeeee

bargan hunters may step up - hoping it's the bottom...
trying to time the market.

but i just don't think we're anywhere NEAR the bottom yet.

think about it. we've only breached maybe half of this iceburg.
and now, this sucker's going global.

to me, at this point it seems it's less about opportunity than it is finding a safe place to keep that money.

i hope i'm wrong. i swear to god i really do hope i am.
but i'd be very careful about jumping in.

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MarkMiller

Not yet folks........

Sell!!!!!