Bankruptcy

World Markets Down

By J. Michael McBride

Japan’s index (the Nikkei) has hit a 26 year low.

“"Worries about the impact of the surging yen on Japanese export earnings have hit the Nikkei hard," said Julian Jessop, chief international economist at Capital Economics.

"This in turn has led to sharp falls in European markets even when, as on Friday, the U.S. had closed higher the day before," he added.

Benchmarks in Britain, Germany and France trading down more than 4 percent. The FTSE 100 index was 190.97 points, or 4.9 percent, lower at 3,693.39, with heavyweight oil stocks BP PLC and Royal Dutch Shell down 5.1 percent and 4.7 percent respectively as oil prices continue to plummet despite last week's decision by the OPEC oil cartel to cut production.

Germany's DAX was down 200.24 points, or 4.7 percent, at 4,095.43 despite an 80 percent rise in the share price of Volkswagen AG following news that Porsche AG wants to increase its stake in the car manufacturer.

France's CAC-40 was the worst performing European index, down 216.34 points, or 6.8 percent, at 2,977.45, with car manufacturers heavily sold off after gloomy updates last week. Renault SA shares were 8.7 percent lower, while Peugeot SA shares were down 7.3 percent.

Dow futures were down 268 points, or 3.2 percent, at 7,994. Standard & Poor's 500 futures were down about 4 percent.”

So far this morning, the Dow is pretty even, no major moves…yet. Here is a link to one article:
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/081027/world_markets.html?.v=7

Michael

Full post as published by Texas Lawyer Blog on October 27, 2008 (boomark / email).