European shares tumble

[Dr.Phool]

Source: Reuters

LONDON, Oct 10 (Reuters) - European stocks tumbled at the open on Friday, tracking plunges in Asian and U.S. equities as investors feared world governments' attempts to unlock credit markets would not suffice to ward off a global recession.

At 0713 GMT, the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index was down 8 percent at 847.8 points, after hitting its lowest level since July 2003. The index has fallen more than 22 percent so far this week, on track for its worst week on record.

Battered banks led the decline, with Barclays (BARC.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) off 15.6 percent, Santander (SAN.MC: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) down 9.8 percent and HSBC (HSBA.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) down 4.3 percent. Oil shares also tumbled, with BP (BP.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) down 8 and 5.9 percent, respectively, as crude fell 4.6 percent.

The U.S. government is weighing guaranteeing billions of dollars in bank debt and temporarily insuring all U.S. bank deposits, in a bid to unfreeze bank lending and staunch massive losses in equity markets, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Japan's Nikkei 225 .N225 fell nearly 10 percent on Friday, while Wall Street's Dow Jones industrial average .DJI shed more than 7 percent on Thursday.

"The stark reality is that markets have judged the co-ordinated interest rates cut not to have been enough, and we are now left wondering how best to get ourselves out of this downward spiral," said Chris Hossain, senior sales manager, ODL Securities. "One gets the feeling that this market is now strictly confined to the brave."

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idCALA66184320081010?rpc=44

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Sorry, it's not the exact title. I tried cutting and pasting, but it kept coming up different.

To make a long story short. The insanity continues. We're all fucked!

[Dr.Phool]

1. Dow Futures are now down 252pts for in the morning.

3:40am

[Mojambo]

2. Can you explain what DOW futures are, exactly? n/t