Britain and Europe
Equities suffered another body blow on Friday, which added onto the already dismal week. More earnings warnings from bell weather U.S. companies (Motorola and Sun) and earnings warnings by European counterparts depressed investors and the indexes tracked here also. In Germany, banks were lower because of their exposure to the Turkish financial crisis. It is thought that German banks have the most to lose and are most likely to be hit by Turkish failures.

Equities here continue to follow U.S. direction. Even halfhearted rallies vaporize when U.S. news turns negative. The global slide in share prices shows no sign of ending as long as U.S. shares continue to sink. Investors continue to worry about the U.S. slowdown and the after-effects from the March 2000 burst of the technology bubble. Earnings worries continue to multiply as high profile firm after high profile firm issues warnings, heaping more disappoints on investors.

Asia
Asian equities indexes followed here fared better than their counterparts in Europe and the Americas. Although the Nikkei 225 remained precipitously above 13,000, it did manage to sink below that level in intra-day trading. The government again is talking about intervening in the equities markets to keep the average above 13,000, especially prior to March 31, the end of the Japanese fiscal year. The Nikkei's decline was limited after bank stocks rose when the chairman of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's stock panel said that the government may buy shares to halt the index's six month, 20 percent slump. He promised that the government would keep the market above 13,000 to maintain the financial stability of the Japanese banking system.

Americas
The worst casualties in equities markets were in the United States, Canada and Mexico. All fell after a higher than expected U.S. inflation report dampened investors' hopes that Federal Reserve interest rate cuts would be large enough to spur the economy. While investors are most concerned about the effect of the U.S. slowdown on technology stocks, there are growing fears for the broader markets. For example, a lot of the attention is now on the Canadian economy and what exactly is taking place in terms of economic growth. Businesses are putting quite a bit of blame for their disappointing results at the feet of the U.S. economy.

New earnings warnings from key technology leaders confirmed investors' worst fears about the deteriorating corporate profit picture Friday. But speculation that the Fed could lower interest rates by 50 basis points as early as this week wiped out losses in the Nasdaq composite index for the day. The next meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) is scheduled for March 20. Investors have been hoping a rate cut would come before the March meeting, but big jumps in key inflation data have raised the possibility that the Fed may be less aggressive in making additional cuts.

Introduction   •   Global Stock Market Indexes   •   Recap of Global Markets   •   Currencies   •  Indicator Scoreboard

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