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That's the red-fonted headline at the Drudge Report. It's true, foreign markets are taking a beating today. The New York Times reports:

NEW DELHI — Asian and European markets nose-dived on Monday as hope that healthy local economies might escape the force of a United States recession evaporated and fear gripped investors instead.

Blue chip stocks lead the declines in most markets, dragging major indexes in Hong Kong, Shanghai and India down by more than 5 percent during the day, while those in South Korea and Australia fell by nearly 3 percent.

In Japan, which may be facing a new recession of its own, most indexes were off by more than 3 percent.

European shares sank 4 percent by late morning on Monday, putting them on track for their biggest one-day fall in more than four and a half years as fears of a recession in the United States rattled investors.

Shares in oil and financial companies took a hammering, Reuters reported.

By midday, the FTSEurofirst index of top European shares was down 3.9 percent at 1,304.98 points, a level not seen in eighteen months.

The FTSE 100 index of leading British shares fell by more than 300 points, or more than 5 percent, and Germany’s Dax index was down by more than 500 points, or more than 7 percent.

In Asia, Shanghai’s Composite Index closed down 5.1 percent at 4,914.44, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 5.5 percent to 23,818.86, the biggest fall since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States.

Posted by edelfenbein at January 21, 2008 10:01 AM