Wall Street trading locked yesterday on significant index declines due to concerns that the European debt crisis may renew itself, as well as disappointing macroeconomic data. By the end of the trading day, the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined by 1.6% to 11,024 points, the NASDAQ index dropped by 1.75% to 2,469 points, whereas the S&P 500 index fell by 1.6% to 1,178 points.
In Europe we have also seen sharp stock declines due to the concerns over a renewed expansion of the crisis. The London stock exchange dropped by 2.4%, the Frankfurt stock exchange descended by 1.9%, the Paris exchange took a deep dive with 2.6%, the Madrid stock exchange weakened by 2.5%, and the Dublin exchange – by a mere 1.4%. The Finance ministers of the European Union have met in Brussels to discuss the possible avenues of aiding Ireland, whose budged deficit has grown to 32% as a result of bailing out the banking sector in that country. The Wall Street Journal has reported that Ireland bank bailout package will be 80-100 billion Euros.
Asian stock markets have traded today at a negative trend after the Chinese PM has stated that his government is planning to take steps to combat the inflation, especially given the air of uncertainty regarding the Irish economy. As such, the Tokyo stock exchange descended 0.1%, the Hong Kong exchange dropped by 0.7%, the Seoul stock exchange declined by 0.2%, Shanghai plummeted by 1.2% and Sydney lowered by 1.6%.
In the American macroeconomic sector the industrial production report for October, which remained unchanged, disappointed investors. Economists have predicted the production would rise by 0.3% after a decline of 0.2% for September. Furthermore, the United States bureau of labor statistics has reported that the U.S. Producer price index has risen by 0.4% in October. The core index (not including food and energy prices) has declined 0.6% in October, this after 11 months of growth and despite economists' predictions of 0.7% rise in the general index and 0.1% rise in the core index.