Asian Markets Plunging

By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 9, 2008 8:08 PM CDT
Asian Markets Plunging
An electronic stock board is illuminated at a securities firm in Tokyo, Japan, Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2008.   (AP Photo/Junji Kurokawa)

Asia's markets are following on the heels of the Dow's plunge today, MarketWatch reports. All of them are dropping precipitously at the start of Friday's trading, with Japan's benchmark Nikkei index down more than 10%. Elsewhere, South Korea's was down nearly 9%, Hong Kong's 8%, and Australia's 6.7%. The bad opening follows the Dow's drop of 679 points to 8,579.19, its first close below 9,000 since 2003.

"It's beyond panic," a trader at Samsung Securities in Seoul. "People are selling whatever they can sell," added a general manager at a brokerage in Japan. Investors are now anxious to see if the G-7 group of industrialized nations will take action to calm markets at a meeting later Friday, the Wall Street Journal notes. (More Nikkei 225 Stock Average stories.)

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