WASHINGTON — The global financial crisis deepened Monday as U.S. and overseas stock exchanges plummeted amid eroding confidence in the world's banking system. Countries big and small struggled to contain a widening panic among both investors and depositors.
In the United States, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by more than 400 points within an hour of the opening bell and by midday stocks on the Dow remained off almost 500 points to around 9800. Stocks on all three major exchanges are approaching their levels of a decade ago amid investor flight.
It was just as bad in overseas trading, where European and Asian exchanges sunk sharply too. In Europe, many exchanges posted their worst days ever. France's CAC-40 index fell 9 percent while Germany's DAX-30 fell by more than 7 percent. Russia's stock index fell by more than 19 percent before trading was halted in what is becoming a nearly daily occurrence.
In a troubling sign that the entire globe is suffering financial contagion, big emerging economies that helped fuel global economic growth in recent years even as the U.S. economy slowed are now in turmoil themselves.
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