Black Monday: Stocks in China, Asia and Europe Plummet
Monday, August 24 is already being heralded by Beijing media as China’s black Monday. The leading Chinese equity index, the Shanghai Composite, fell by a massive 8.5 percent. This loss made a mockery of all the previous government measures that supposedly would shore up the Chinese stock market. The equities debacle in China was echoed by the fall in stock prices throughout other major Asian markets.
In reaction to the dismal economic and equity news out of China, European bourses opened the trading session with their own set of staggering losses. Is the global stock market bubble, puffed up by central banks since the onset of the global economic and financial crisis in 2008 independent of poor economic fundamentals, about to pop? The signs are looking ominous.