US stock prices plummeted Thursday and Asian stocks followed them down Friday with the Nikkei 225 plunging 11% in afternoon trade. In Europe, key stock markets closed down just 1%-2% although the futures market indicated the FTSE100 would open 200 points down in London on Friday. There was little sign of easing of tensions in the money markets as the key three-month dollar Libor rose to 4.75%, nearly 2 percentage points higher than mid-September. Crude oil prices continued to slide although gold rebounded.
US markets (Thurs)
DJIA down 678.91 at 8,579.19
Nasdaq down 95.21 at 1,645.12
S&P500 down 75.02 at 909.92
Asian markets (Fri)
05:22am BST
Nikkei down 929.12 at 8,228.37
Topix down 75.02 at 830.09
Hang Seng down 1174.65 at 14,768.59
European markets (Thurs)
FTSE100 down 52.89 at 4,313.80
Eurofirst 300 down 19.32 at 921.46
Currencies
05.19am BST
€/$ 1.3527 (1.3675)
$/Y 98.79 (100.83)
£/$ 1.6929 (1.7279)
Commodities (updated)
Brent Crude (Nov08) down $3.41 at $79.25
Light Crude (Nov08) down $4.34 at $82.25
3M Copper 24HR up $360.00 at $4,900.00
100 Oz Gold (Dec8) up $33.20 at $919.70
10-year government bond yields (%)
US 3.75 (3.70)
UK 4.36 (4.28)
Germany 3.90 (3.84)
Japan 1.53 (1.43)
Sources: FT, Reuters