LONDON, 15 August 2007 — World stock markets fell again yesterday, as another giant swing in sentiment sent markets in Europe and the United States tumbling during another day of volatile trading.
Europe’s main markets closed sharply lower. Tokyo and Hong Kong had closed higher earlier in the day, leading analysts to suggest that calm was returning to markets after four days of turbulence linked to problems in the US housing market.
Traders pointed to the re-emergence of rumors that more banks and hedge funds had been hit by financial losses from bad investments in high-risk US subprime home loans.
A dealer in Paris said that US hedge fund Sentinel had asked US regulator the Commodity Futures Trading Commission whether it could stop withdrawals from its funds as investors fled exposure to subprime loans. “Everything is going south again,” said the dealer, also noting other rumors that French banking group Societe Generale was planning to announce losses by one of its investment funds. In late morning trade in the US, the Dow Jones Industrial Average had fallen 0.76 percent to 13,136.22, while the tech-heavy NASDAQ composite had lost 0.45 percent to 2,530.73.
