Dow Jones down, NASDAQ in red, global losses continue

US, EU markets have been facing the heat of the global meltdown

J & K | Chhattisgarh | Delhi | MP |
Mizoram | Rajasthan

Featured Blog

Rajdeep Sardesai

26/11: Terror comes precariously close

Featured Slideshows

New Delhi: The American and European markets are still taking a beating, though slashed interest rates did stem the damage a little.

As stock markets are traumatized by cascading losses and the collapse of some of the oldest names in banking, markets across the world took only mild comfort.

Investors and the common man alike, want to know what more policy-makers can do and whether more cuts will follow from each country's central banks.

Even as the group of seven finance ministers and central bankers are meeting in Washington to stem the worst credit crisis since the Great Depression, markets have shown little recovery.

Dow Jones is still below 10,000, down by two per cent. It had lost 800 points on Tuesday, going below 10,000 for the first time in four years.

The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was down by 1.13 per cent, extending the worst weekly slump since 2001. This has come as a setback, right after the indices had touched a five year low..

The NASDAQ too ended in the red at just over 1,740 points. Wall Street's drop was part of a breakneck global sell-off that witnessed stocks plunging and led to trading being halted in Russia, Brazil and Peru.

European markets also saw a major selling spree. London's FTSE 100 was down 5.18 per cent, with banking and commodity stocks taking a battering.

CNN correspondent in New York, Carter Evans has been closely watching the movements in the market indices. He spoke about the co-coordinated effort of Central Banks cutting rates. Analysts have been hoping that this will bring the much needed relief or is the financial crisis which has now been spreading almost like a Tsunami.

“There is a huge amount of concern and people do not know what to expect. Lot of investor confidence is lost and a lot of people were happy that the stocks had gone up. Then just before the markets opened, they went down. Within 10 minutes they rallied again and went down again, showing how volatile the situation can be,” said Evans.

To read IBNLive stories on mobile, log on to m.ibnlive.com on your mobile browser