Global shares drop more on Friday

March 2, 2007

ast Updated: Friday, 2 March 2007, 18:47 GMT E-mail this to a friend Printable version Dear list members,The US stock market finished

the day down over 1% according to the latest figures.Depending on the index it is down 5-7% from the highs reached just a couple of weeks ago. No one seems to be able to make heads or tails of what is going on, except us!Best wishes,ThorPS Vyas, I replied to your message earlier, but it hasn´t showed up. I will wait to see if it shows up before replicating it. It seems that the email system is having problems again, especially if one uses the reply function on the web. Global shares drop for fourth day The FTSE has lost 5% over three days Global shares have fallen for a fourth day, though the sharp slump that spooked markets at the start of the week seemed to be running out of steam. US markets slid, with the Dow Jones down 0.5%, after consumer confidence figures disappointed the market. The S & P 500 and Nasdaq lost about 1%. Earlier in the day, European and Asian markets had declined, driven lower by concerns that prices were overvalued. The UK's FTSE 100 index, while little changed on Friday, lost 5% this week. 'Very edgy' Analysts said stocks had been due a correction, adding that the

question now was by how much and how long it would continue. This week's sell-off was sparked by fears of a new tax in China on Tuesday, and then spread to broader global economic issues. Some market participants have raised the threat of a recession in the US, but many observers feel that this view is too extreme. Instead, they are focusing on shorter-term issues such as currency fluctuations and inflation, and how they will impact on corporate earnings, experts said. "Everyone remains very edgy," one trader told Reuters. The UK's FTSE added 0.2 point to close at 6,116.2. In Germany, the Dax index lost 0.6%, and in France the Cac 40 shed 0.6%. 'Irrational' Asian markets also gave a slightly mixed picture. The Singapore Straits

Times Index lost 0.6% while Australian shares fell 0.4%. "The market has been performing a bit irrationally in recent sessions amid sharp fluctuations," said Chen Huiqin, an analyst at Huatai Securities. In Japan, Friday's closing losses on the Nikkei wiped out the last of the gains the index had made so far made this year. But shares in Hong Kong traded higher, with the Hang Seng index rising 0.3%.

Any questions? Get answers on any topic at Answers. Try it now.