Fears over growth in China cause global stock markets to plunge
Business
Fears over growth in China cause global stock markets to plunge
World stock markets plunged further on Tuesday as more gloomy evidence emerged of China’s economic slowdown, triggering heavy sell-offs from Hong Kong to New York and raising fears of weakening global growth. Downbeat data showed factory activity in China hit a three-year low, fueling concern over the health of the world’s second-largest economy, which has been a main engine of economic expansion.
Monday’s relatively peaceful markets are a distant memory as Chinese data and shares sparked another severe overnight reaction from the developed world.
John Briggs, head of fixed-income strategy at RBS
Christine Lagarde, head of the International Monetary Fund, also added to the gloom when she warned that global growth this year would be “likely weaker” than previously anticipated, less than two months after the IMF cut its global forecast for 2015 to 3.3 percent. Tuesday’s sell-off adds to what has been a difficult few weeks for U.S. and international stocks and dashed hopes that, after some relatively calm trading on Friday and Monday, the stock market’s wild swings were coming to an end.
Investors are concerned about the strength of the global economy, which is why you’re seeing a sell-off in various stock markets.
Ayako Sera, strategist at Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank Ltd. in Tokyo
