NEW YORK: US stock markets continued their wild ride on Friday, ending one of the most volatile weeks in trading since the financial crisis as international stock markets continued to fall, spooked by fears of more rapidly rising interest rates.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average, which lost more than 1,000 points on Thursday, rose 30 points on Friday morning as the more broadly based S&P 500 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq also moved into the black only to shortly lose those gains. By noon the Dow was down over 200 points and then rallied to end up over 300 points.
Despite the rally, the Dow fell 5% over the week, one of its biggest one-week drops since the recession.
World stock markets have dropped sharply from recent record highs over the past week. The rout started last Friday after the latest US jobs report was released. The report indicated stronger than expected growth in wages, adding pressure on the Federal Reserve to raise rates in order to head off inflation.
In London the FTSE 100 closed down 1%, while Germany’s DAX and France’s CAC also lost ground. The moves came after falls on the Asian exchanges with Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 down 2.3% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng down 3.1%.
The sell-off extended to oil prices with US crude futures down $1.98, or 3.24%, at $59.18 a barrel on the New York mercantile exchange.
