Stock Market Worldwide

Last week, the stock market on Wall Street dramatically fell. Today, Wall Street closed for Martin Luther King Jr. Day. While the US stock market closed, the rest of the world still suffers a significant downturn on their stock market.

London’s stock market fell sharply today. India’s benchmark stock index tumbled 7.4 percent. Hong Kong’s blue-chip Hang Seng index plummeted 5.5 percent. The stock market experienced the biggest percentage drop since Sep. 11th, 2001’s terrorist attack.

Investors keep selling their shares because of the decline in the market. Even though President Bush announced the Tax Cut plan, it will still require approval from Congress. The US Central Bank is also ready to act aggressively. That means a more likely interest rate cut late this month.

Some experts predict that Asia won’t suffer significantly from a US market recession. The increasing trade and investment has made Asia less reliant on the USA. I don’t quite agree with it. The overseas market and US market are positively correlated. Japan’s benchmark index slid 3.9 percent. In Shanghai, China, the bank’s stock declined 4.1 percent. It might be the case that overseas countries won’t go through the lowest point of its market as we do here. The damage can still be significant. The difference is that they can get out of the downturn much easier than we do.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080121/ap_on_bi_ge/world_markets
http://markets.usatoday.com/custom/usatoday-com