Stockmarkets Slump Again

Online Stock Trading - Stockmarkets Slump Again

US and UK Indexes fell sharply this afternoon (morning in the USA), with banking shares being particularly weak with Wall Street starting sharply down on bad retail figures and fall out from Geithnergate. There have been some particularly virulent calls for Geithner to go before he even starts, is this ‘change we can believe’ ? Or just more of the same ‘ole same ‘ole.

At 4:15 pm in London, the FTSE100 is down 266 points at 4,132 and the DOW Index down 292 at 8156. Don't forget the short-selling ban will be lifted in London on Friday 16 January.

NEW YORK

A deal appears to be imminent between Microsoft and Yahoo.

In the US stocks fell sharply after data showing retail sales fell in December twice as much as forecast.


LONDON MARKETS

FirstGroup (FGP) is down 15% at 360p, after saying revenue growth at Greyhound has suffered badly in the ‘challenging economic environment’.

Man Group said funds under management fell 21% in the Q3 as a result of further redemptions.

Banks got hammered again. HSBC is down 10% after weak trading in Hong Kong.

HBOS is down 14% as it winds up its presence on the FTSE. Barclays is down 16% and Royal Bank of Scotland is down 18%, Lloyds TSB is down 12%.

Amec managed to move up 5% after saying pre-tax profits should top £200m in 2008, at the high end of forecasts.

Property companies fell, commodity stocks are weak due to there being little sign of any recovery in metals prices.

In fact it’s pretty much a mess all round, a bit like back in October/November. Things weren’t too bad in December but now it seems all the steam has gone out and the expected sell-off has started again.

Punch Taverns fell 30% on like-for-like outlet profit down approximately 12% - it expects difficult trading conditions for the foreseeable future.

The OECD says the worst is yet to come and Mr Gurria Secretary General of the OECD says the ECB should ‘act tomorrow’. President Sarkozy said something similar a while back and that only served to make Trichet even more stubborn.

Bob Parker of Credit Suisse Asset Management said on CNBC : ‘Q1 will be the worst in terms of economic contraction.’