London’s blue-chip shares are expected to start Thursday on the back foot, following Asia and Wall Street into the red.
On Wall Street last night the Dow Jones fell all but 300 points, 1.6%, while the S&P 500 gave up 1.46% and the NASDAQ fell furthest, losing nearly 2.4%.
The selling was fairly broad, though technology and bio technology shares were hit particularly hard.
It was the third straight day of losses for Wall Street’s main benchmarks and comes as investor worry over the robustness of the US economy, amid weaker corporate earnings for the start of 2015.
In Asia the mood was largely the same with Japan’s Nikkei down 1.4%, Korea’s Kospi dropped 1% and so did India’s Sensex. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was pretty much flat, however, and the Shanghai Composite actually edged 0.3% higher.
The selling is expected to continue when trading begins here.
“Ahead of the European open, we are calling the major bourses weaker,” said IG Markets analyst Stan Shamu.
IG Markets is calling the FTSE 100 lower, to open 40 points lower at 6,958 to 6,963.