Wall Street plunges on bailout vote
by Elaine Frei
The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost the most points in a single day in its history and other New York equities markets dropped sharply Monday as the US House of Representatives refused to pass a plan to bail out the US financial sector.
The Dow dropped 777.68 points on the session, nearly 100 points more than the previous record of 684.81 points, set in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, for a decline of 6.98 percent to 10,365.45, but the percentage decline was far less than the 20 percent declines seen on Black Monday in October 1987 or at the beginning of the Great Depression in 1929.
The Nasdaq Composite was down 9.14 percent to 1,983.73 while the S&P 500 dropped 8.8 percent to 1,106.55.
European equities markets saw significant declines even before the vote in the House after three banks in the region received bailouts of various sorts.
In London, the FTSE 100 was down 5.3 percent to 4,181.77 while the FTSE 250 dropped 5.82 percent to 7,792.93.
The FTSE Eurofirst 300 was down 5.23 percent to 1,047.04 while the IBEX was 3.88 percent to 10,945.7, the Dax fell 4.23 percent to 5,807.08 and the CAC-40 dropped 5.04 percent to 3,953.48.
Equities markets in the Asia-Pacific region were lower Monday on fears that even if the bailout did pass, it wouldn’t be enough to rescue the global economy.
In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 was down 1.26 percent to 11,743.61 while the Topix index fell 1.74 percent to 1,127.87 and the Mothers market of small and mid-caps dropped 3.41 percent to 412.71.
Elsewhere in the region, the Shanghai Composite was down 0.16 percent to 2,293.78 and the Kospi was 1.35 percent lower to 1,456.36 while in Australia the Sydney Ordinaries dropped 1.93 percent to 4,839.2 and the S&P/ASX200 fell 1.99 percent to 4,807.4.
The Straits Times Index was down 2.08 percent to 2,361.34, the Taiex fell 2.16 percent to 5,929.63, the Sensex was 3.87 percent lower to 12,595.75 and the Hang Seng dropped 4.29 percent to 17,880.68.
Crude oil prices fell significantly, with West Texas Intermediate falling nearly 10 percent, while grains and most metals followed with substantial losses of their own.
The pound and the euro both declined on the bank bailouts in Europe.
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