”Markets hit amid European debt fears
Financial markets weighed down by fears about the European debt crisis fluctuated in wild trading on Thursday, with US stock prices losing almost 9 per cent, before reclaiming most of their losses by day’s end.
The speed of the descent in stock prices and other markets fuelled suspicion that a computer trading program error had occurred as traders wrestled with the anxiety that Greece could become the first eurozone country to default on its debt.
The S&P 500 had already fallen 4 per cent to the key level of 1,200, when the market suddenly plunged and sent the benchmark down as much as 8.6 per cent to 1,065.79. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by 998.50 points, or 9.2 per cent.
At one point the price of Procter & Gamble, a blue chip consumer product giant, seen as a safe haven stock, fell 37 per cent in a matter of minutes.”
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