Business
A major European stock index falls into a bear market.
Europe’s Stoxx 600 index ended the day in bear market territory, a bleak reflection of the state of the European financial system.
The benchmark index, which incorporates massive corporations from 17 European international locations, like Britain’s Shell, Switzerland’s Nestlé and Germany’s Volkswagen, fell 2.3 p.c on Friday, pushing the index down about 21 p.c from its Jan. 5 peak.
A fall of greater than 20 p.c from a excessive is the frequent definition of a bear market, a uncommon and grim sign for inventory markets. The S&P 500 slipped right into a bear market in June.
Surveys of company buying managers revealed on Friday darkened the temper of European buyers. The polls implied one other month of contraction in enterprise exercise within the eurozone, suggesting that “recession is inevitable,” Katharina Koenz, a senior economist at Oxford Economics, wrote in a report. “The decline was led by manufacturing, because the sector continues to undergo from sky-high vitality prices, however the companies sector additionally confirmed marked weak spot.”