Rising fears of a global economic slowdown sent US and European stock prices sliding on Thursday and Asian stocks down on Friday as the ECB signalled it could soon cut interest rates for the first time in five years. Meanwhile, the dollar on Thursday gained 1.2% against a trade-weighted basket of currencies and is now up 12.9% since April. Crude oil prices tumbled as a batch of weak US economic data, combined with further evidence that the capital markets remain frozen for even the best companies, also drove sharp falls in commodity prices and emerging markets.
US markets (Thurs)
DJIA down 348.22 at 10,482.85
Nasdaq down 92.68 at 1,976.72
S&P500 down 46.78 at 1,114.28
Asian markets (Fri)
05:20am BST
Nikkei down 187.53 at 10,967.23
Topix down 26.50 at 1,050.47
Hang Seng down 464.37 at 17,746.74
European markets (Thurs)
FTSE100 down 89.25 at 4,870.34
Eurofirst 300 down 15.13 at 1,057.51
Currencies
05.19am BST
€/$ 1.3866 (1.3987)
$/Y 105.19 (105.76)
£/$ 1.7708 (1.7709)
Commodities (updated)
Brent Crude (Nov08) down $0.36 at $90.20
Light Crude (Nov08) down $0.75 at $93.22
3M Copper 24HR up $60.00 at $5,860.00
100 Oz Gold (Dec8) down $0.10 at $844.20
10-year government bond yields (%)
US 3.63 (3.73)
UK 4.37 (4.45)
Germany 3.92 (4.03)
Japan 1.45 (1.52)
Sources: FT, Reuters