Global markets tumble on recession fears

On Wall Street, US stocks fell as they did in Europe and Asia with would-be investors spooked by fears of a global recession. Wall Street’s main Dow Jones index ended down 5.7 per cent or 514 points to 8519. The Nasdaq lost 4.8 per cent or 81 points. An announcement that George W Bush will host world leaders next month to discuss the financial crisis, failed to quell the fears of worried investors.

Sam Stovall, Chief Equities Analyst at Standard and Poor’s said: “They (investors) are getting worried that earnings are continuing to tumble as we head toward a global recession, and now what they are trying to do is build-in the possibility of a deeper than expected decline in GDP not only here in the US, as well as overseas.”

Investor confidence was further eroded by UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s warning that Britain was entering a recession. The UK’s FTSE 100 ended down 4.5 per cent, down 189 points at 4041. Elsewhere in Europe, Germany’s Dax lost 240 points to finish at 4545 while France’s Cac 40 declined by 177 points to 3298.

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