News: Stock markets: How low can you go? Today's overview

The situation today (Full):

• New Zealand's benchmark NZX-50 index fell 4.7%, its biggest one-day fall since October 24 1997. Over the past six trading days the market has shed 427 points, or 14%.
• Australian market watchers called it Black Friday. In Sydney, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 plummeted 8.34%
• Japan's Nikkei plunged 9.6% to close at its worst week in history.
• South Korea - The Seoul Composite index dropped 4.1% to 1241 points.
• China - The Shanghai Composite index fell 3.6% to 2000.
• Hong Kong's stockmarket closed on a three-year low. The benchmark Hang Seng index was down 1146 points, or 7.2%, to 14,796 after falling by more than 9.5% at one point.
• Singapore's Straits Times index dropped 7.7%.
• Indonesia: Share trading was suspended for a third day.
• Indian Rupee hit an all-time low and the main stock index plunged more than 9%. India's finance minister said on TV that there was no need to worry.
• Iraq - Baghdad stockmarket is booming, with the general index up by nearly 40% last month.
• Egyptian stockmarket fell 4.6% to 1993 points, after plunging 16.4% to a two-year low on Tuesday.
• Zimbabweans are only worried about the official inflation rate of 231 million percent. Independent economists say the real inflation rate is in the trillions.
• Russia, Romania and Ukraine suspended their stockmarkets today.
• Czech Republic - Prague stocks fell more than 13%.
• Hungary shares in Budapest lost more than 12%
• Poland's zloty hit an eight-month low.
• Iceland had no international trade of the Icelandic crown today after its banking sector, currency and economy crashed.
• Austria's trading briefly halted in Vienna this morning.
• France - The CAC-40 index in Paris dropped more than 10% to 3089 this afternoon.
• Germany - the Dax dived by more than 9% in the afternoon.
• Sweden's market fell nearly 6% to 196 points this morning.
• Italy - half of Milan stocks were suspended after excessive losses.
• Spain - Madrid stock exchange lost 8.7%
• Switzerland - The Swiss market dropped nearly 7% to 5394 points.
• UK - A wave of panic selling wiped more than £100bn off the value of Britain's biggest companies. The FTSE 100 plummeting by more than 10% in early trading. The index fell by 438.8 points.
• United States - the Dow Jones plummeted nearly 700 points in the first ten minutes of trading to 7882, a fall of 8%. Losses for the year totaled a staggering US$8.3 trillion, as measured by the Dow Jones Wilshire 5000 Composite Index. (Full)
• Brazil's main stock index plummeted more than 10% in early trading.
  

[Ed: All I can say is: "Thank you, Mr Bush. A nice legacy. This must be the peak of your governance!"]

Cartoon courtesy of Bill McLemore and Gwinnett's Forum.