- Man City sink Barca in Women's Champions League as Bayern outgun Arsenal
- Greek international Baldock, 31, found dead in pool: state agency
- Florida seaside haven a ghost town as hurricane nears
- Pharrell Williams to co-chair Met Gala exploring Black dandyism
- Wall Street indices hit fresh records as Chinese shares tumble
- Taiwan's president to deliver key speech for National Day
- Sea row on the menu as ASEAN leaders meet China's Li
- Injured Kane won't start England's Nations League clash with Greece
- Discord seen as online home for renegades
- US forecasts severe solar storm starting Thursday
- Mozambique starts tallying votes in tense election
- Zelensky moves to court European leaders in drive for military aid
- Ratan Tata: Indian mogul who built a global powerhouse
- Rodgers rejects 'false' suggestions of role in Saleh dismissal
- One dead as storm Kirk tears through Spain, Portugal, France
- Indian business titan Ratan Tata dead at 86
- Lebanon facing 'catastrophic' situation as 600,000 displaced: UN
- US warns Israel not to repeat Gaza destruction in Lebanon
- Musk's X returns in Brazil after 40-day showdown with judge
- Call her savvy? Harris unleashes unconventional media blitz
- Lucian Freud 'masterpiece' fetches £13.9 million at London sale
- SoFi Stadium to hold next two CONCACAF Nations League finals
- McIlroy and DeChambeau set for PGA-LIV 'Showdown' in Vegas
- Fed minutes highlight divisions over rate cut decision
- Steve McQueen debuts new WWII film at London festival
- Run blitz edges India and South Africa closer to World Cup semi-finals
- Zelensky to court European leaders in drive for military aid
- Israel captain says 'difficult' to focus on football in time of war
- Macron to host Ukraine's Zelensky after meeting Ukrainian troops
- Root says 'many more to get' after England Test runs landmark
- India pile up World Cup high to rout Sri Lanka
- One year later, Israeli hostage family learns of loss
- Texans receiver Collins, Pats' safety Peppers out for NFL clash
- Biden-Netanyahu talk as Hezbollah, Israeli forces clash
- Musk's X available again in Brazil after 40-day ban
- Reddy stars as India crush Bangladesh to clinch T20 series
- Nobel winners hope protein work will spur 'incredible' breakthroughs
- What are proteins again? Nobel-winning chemistry explained
- Arch rivals Ghana, Nigeria drawn together in CHAN qualifying
- AI steps into science limelight with Nobel wins
- Trump lauds India's Modi as 'total killer'
- Wall Street, Europe rise as Chinese shares tumble
- Hunkering down for Hurricane Milton at Disney -- but first, a few rides
- Reddy, Rinku power India to 221-9 in second Bangladesh T20
- Overshooting 1.5C risks 'irreversible' climate impact: study
- Time running out in Florida to flee Hurricane Milton
- Demis Hassabis, from chess prodigy to Nobel-winning AI pioneer
- The long walk for water in the parched Colombian Amazon
- Biden-Netanyahu to talk as Hezbollah, Israeli forces clash
- France vows to step up drugs fight after police vehicles torched
Stock markets plunge on US recession fears
Wall Street stocks deepened their losses Monday and Tokyo had its worst day in 13 years as panic spread across trading floors over fears of recession in the United States.
Wall Street's tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite index tumbled 6.3 percent at the open, with the S&P 500 falling 4.2 percent and the Dow dropping 2.7 percent.
Major European indices were down around three percent in afternoon trading.
Tokyo's Nikkei tanked more than 12 percent in its worst day since the Fukushima crisis in 2011. It also suffered its biggest ever points loss, shedding 4,451.28.
The market meltdown was triggered by a weak US jobs report on Friday which showed the unemployment rate reached its highest since October 2021.
The report came two days after the US Federal Reserved decided, as expected, to keep interest rates at a 23-year high while signalling that it could cut them in September.
"Investors are gripped by fears that the Federal Reserve has waited too long to pivot on its policy, especially in light of Friday's disappointing US jobs data and a slew of other weak economic indicators pointing toward a looming recession," said market analyst Fawad Razaqzada at City Index and FOREX.com.
Friday's much-anticipated report showed the US economy added just 114,000 jobs last month, well down from June and far fewer than expected, and unemployment at 4.3 percent.
The news came a day after lacklustre factory data.
Investors fear the Fed's high rates, which aimed to slash inflation, could be plunging the economy towards a hard landing and recession instead of the soft landing sought by the central bank.
Expectations that the Fed could cut more aggressively than expected from September, or even be forced into an emergency reduction this month, sent the dollar sliding against the yen.
The Japanese currency was boosted also by a Bank of Japan interest-rate hike last week, analysts said.
The dollar went under 142 yen for the first time since January.
- Bitcoin, oil retreat -
Markets tumbled across the board Monday, with Brent North Sea crude reaching the lowest level in more than six months despite heightened Middle East tensions, while bitcoin slumped more than 10 percent to under $50,000.
"Aside from ongoing worries about a US recession, the continuation of the pressure on markets has been attributed to unwinding of the yen carry trade and geopolitical fears surrounding an expected Iranian military retaliation against Israel after Israel killed a high-ranking Iranian military official," said Briefing.com analyst Patrick O'Hare.
Many investors have borrowed at low interest rates in a weak yen to invest in higher yielding currencies, but the abrupt surge in the yen as well as interest rate moves is upending the trade.
Some analysts pointed to the "Sahm rule", which says an economy is in the early stages of recession if the three-month moving average of unemployment is 0.5 percentage points above its low over the previous 12 months. That was triggered by Friday's data.
O'Hare also noted big falls in tech and semiconductor shares.
That helped fuel sharp drops in Asia markets and US tech shares were also pulling down Wall Street indices.
Shares in AI chip manufacturer Nvidia plunged 14.6 percent at the start of trading on Monday.
Shares in Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta slumped 7.2 percent.
Microsoft and Google parent company Alphabet shares were down around five percent.
- Key figures around 1330 GMT -
New York - Dow: DOWN 2.7 percent at 38,658.34 points
New York - S&P 500: DOWN 4.2 percent at 5,124.26
New York - Nasdaq Composite: DOWN 6.3 percent at 15,714.23
London - FTSE 100: DOWN 2.8 percent at 7,947.17
Paris - CAC 40: DOWN 2.4 percent at 7,075.60
Frankfurt - DAX: DOWN 3.1 percent at 17,116.92
EURO STOXX 50: DOWN 2.9 percent at 4,504.58
Tokyo - Nikkei 225: DOWN 12.4 percent at 31,458.42 (close)
Hong Kong - Hang Seng Index: DOWN 1.5 percent at 16,698.36 (close)
Shanghai - Composite: DOWN 1.5 percent at 2,860.70 (close)
Dollar/yen: DOWN at 142.14 yen from 146.52 yen on Friday
Euro/dollar: UP at $1.0998 from $1.0912
Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.2780 from $1.2802
Euro/pound: UP at 86.06 pence from 85.22 pence
Brent North Sea Crude: DOWN 1.2 percent at $75.93 per barrel
West Texas Intermediate: DOWN 1.2 percent at $72.66 per barrel
burs-rl/lth
M.Thompson--AMWN