ROME: Europe s main stock markets slumped Monday as investors still rattled by last week s turmoil ponder China s slowing economy and potential US interest rate moves.
The CAC 40 in Paris fell 1.01 percent to 4,627.82 points in mid-afternoon trading, and Frankfurt s DAX 30 lost 0.98 percent to 10,198.03 points compared with Friday s close.
London s stock exchange was closed for a national holiday.
Global equities were hammered last week as risk-averse investors dumped shares on spreading panic that the flagging Chinese economy — the world s second largest — could spark a new worldwide recession.
Markets took much of that back in late-week gains on encouraging US economic news.
But European stocks could end August with their worst month in four years.
Lingering concerns about China and comments over the weekend by US Federal Reserve officials left analysts Monday split over whether the US Federal Reserve would raise interest rates for the first time since 2006 next month.
In a speech at a conference on monetary policy in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, the Fed s number two Stanley Fischer said: “We should not wait until inflation is back to two percent to begin tightening.”
He added, however, that the Fed needed to “consider the overall state of the US economy as well as the influence of foreign economies on the US economy as we reach our judgement on whether and how to change monetary policy.”
