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Stocks plunge as bad data piles up
London (AFP) Dec 1, 2008 Stock markets in Europe and the United States plunged on Monday, succumbing to a deluge of bad economic data pointing to a severe global slowdown and reversing some of the gains made last week. Share prices fell more than five percent in afternoon trading in Europe after Wall Street opened sharply lower. In midmorning trading, the Dow Jones stood 4.06 percent below its level at the close Friday. Asian markets closed mixed. A new set of grim figures pointed to a deepening recession in Europe on Monday, officials painted a sombre picture for Japan and a top auto chief warned of "massive" job losses in the vehicle industry. In China, manufacturing activity hit a three-year low in November, showing how the crisis has spread from its source in the US and Europe to powerhouse emerging markets. The purchasing managers' index (PMI) dropped to 38.8 percent in November, down from 44.6 percent in October and the lowest since the government introduced the survey in 2005, said the Xinhua news agency. Meanwhile, India's exports in October tumbled for the first time in three years, hit by slumping demand in its key US and European markets. Exports fell by 12 percent from the same month a year earlier to 12.8 billion dollars as demand shrank, according to government figures. "There will be a plethora of bad news on economic growth so central banks will need to act boldly to prevent sentiment hitting rock bottom once again," warned NAB Capital analyst John Kyriakopoulos. Central banks were poised to take further action against the gathering gloom, with interest rate cuts expected later in the week in Britain, the eurozone, Australia and New Zealand. The Japanese central bank is also preparing new measures to tackle a worsening credit crunch as officials warned the country could slip back into deflation next year. In the US, with the auto sector teetering on the brink of collapse, the heads of the US Big Three -- General Motors, Ford and Chrysler -- were to return to Congress on Wednesday and Friday to plead for a 25-billion-dollar rescue package. Ford said Monday it would consider selling its Sweden-based subsidiary Volvo Cars as part of a planned strategic realignment. Unless their auto industries receive fresh government help, countries around the world could face huge job losses, the head of auto giant Renault-Nissan warned. "Job destruction will be massive in those countries that do not rapidly help the auto sector to finance itself," Carlos Ghosn, who turned Nissan around a decade ago, told a symposium in Japan. The global slowdown has badly shaken auto makers in Japan, where sales of new cars plunged 27.3 percent in November to 215,783 vehicles, the lowest since 1969, the Japan Automobile Dealers Association said. Auto manufacturers in Europe are likewise struggling. Sales of new cars plummeted an unadjusted 14 percent in November from a year earlier in France and 5.0 percent on a comparable number of working days. November new-car sales fell 49.6 percent in Spain and 36 percent in Sweden, figures from automakers showed. Fresh data released on Monday also showed German retail sales down 1.6 percent in October from the previous month, while in France a closely watched index of manufacturing activity fell to 37.3 in November, its worst-ever reading. "Germany is in the grip of a recession which will probably be more severe than widely expected," Commerzbank analyst Simon Junker said. "Private consumption does not appear strong enough to alleviate the recession in Germany or bring it to an early end," he added. German Chancellor Angela Merkel convened her conservatives at a party congress amid charges she was sitting on her hands while faced with a crippling recession. Across the 15-nation eurozone, of which Germany and France are part, manufacturing activity also hit a record low, with the relevant index falling to 35.6 points last month, the Markit research group reported. European stock markets faltered in afternoon trading, with London and Paris down more than five percent, and Frankfurt off 4.61 percent, off its low of more than 5.0 percent. Asian stock markets closed with mixed fortunes. Hong Kong rose 1.6 percent and Shanghai 1.25 percent while Tokyo lost 1.35 percent and Sydney 1.6 percent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 4.06 percent in midmorning trading. burs-adp/lth Related Links The Economy
Economic crisis trashes scrap business in China
Beijing (AFP) Dec 1, 2008Li Xincun did not even know what the financial crisis was until he noticed he could no longer make the same money on the scrap he collects from households around Beijing. |
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