World markets sink after Wall Street plunge

Source: International Herald Tribune

LONDON: World stock markets plunged Friday in the wake of a sell-off on Wall Street amid mounting concerns about a slumping U.S. economy and its impact on global growth.

Wall Street looked to extend its sharp decline Friday after the U.S. government disappointed investors with news that the economy shed jobs for the eighth straight month in August and at a faster-than-expected pace.

The Labor Department said payrolls shrank by 84,000 last month, more than the 75,000 economists predicted, and higher than the 51,000 jobs lost in July. The unemployment rate rose to 6.1 percent from 5.7 percent.

Friday's report followed disappointing reports on U.S. retail sales and jobless claims overnight, eroding investors' hopes for a late-year recovery in the world's biggest economy.

By late afternoon in Europe, Britain's FTSE-100 was down 1.84 percent to 5,263.70, Germany's DAX lost 2.62 percent to 6,114.96, and France's CAC 40 fell 2.38 percent to 4,201.76.

In Moscow, the U.S. dollar-denominated RTS benchmark was down 6.51 percent in late afternoon trading, sinking to the 1,400-point level which has not been seen since June 2006. Moscow-based analysts say they see the market going further down to 1,300 points this year.
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