Stock Markets Fall Again

October 16th, 2008 By: Michael van der Galien | Tags: , , ,
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After a great day earlier this week, Thursday was a bad day for stock markets in Europe (still open of course) and, especially, Asia. The Nikkei index of Japan lost 11%.

That is the second worst performance of the Nikkei in history.

The stock market of Hong Kong fell approximately 5%, and at point of writing, European stock markets had taken a (relatively minor, but still) tumble as well: they were down some 2% to 3%.

Taro Aso, Japan’s Prime Minister, blamed the United States for the crash of the Nikkei. “Since it was insufficient, the market is again falling sharply,” Aso said about the U.S. bailout package which was passed by Congress almost two weeks ago.

“My understanding is that it was the voice of markets.”

Aside from the Japanese index and that of Hong Kong, the Australia’s All Ordinaries index fell as well, some 6.7%, as did the South Korean KOSP, 9.4%.

Considering the fact that U.S. stock markets seemed likely to open higher, it could very well be argued that the fall of the stock markets in Asia was a response to yesterday’s problems in the United States. On Wednesday, the Dow Jones fell some 8%. Due to the time difference, Asian stock markets respond to fluctuations in U.S. stock markets one day later.

Nonetheless, it is perfectly clear that the bailout bill was a start, and nothing more. Much, most of the work even, remains to be done.

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