Worldwide share prices have continued to fall, triggered by Tuesday's 9% losses on the Shanghai stock market.
The UK's FTSE 100 index fell by 1% in morning trading. That took declines in the past two sessions to 3.2% and knocked £52bn off its total value.
France's Cac 40 dropped by 1% and Germany's Dax lost 1.1%. Earlier, markets in Asia, Australia and India had all suffered substantial losses.
Investors are questioning the outlook for economic and earnings growth.
The falls come after stock prices and indexes climbed to record levels in a number of key world markets.
After a flurry of activity at the start of trading and a large drop, the FTSE 100 rebounded slightly and was recently 61.80 points lower at 6,224.30.
I suppose that, if your pension is to be based on market equities, then it might be important; but the current level of the Footsie is still higher than it was for most of 2006. And, in the longer term, it may affect the propensity of businesses to invest, thus hitting the jobs market. But, to the ordinary Joe, I suspect that this is yet more turbulence in a distant pond, something for the financial pages to get excited about, yet with little impact on real life as it is lived outside the Square Mile.
You will search the broadsheets in vain (I have) for any explanation of the significance of what is happening.
No comments:
Post a Comment