Markets down due to US EU economy fears

Published:  9 Apr at 3 PM

As reported by the BBC, world stock markets have dropped on fears over the health of the US and EU economies. In Europe, shares dropped after a unsatisfactory Spanish bond sale. French and German shares fell nearly 3%.

The European Central Bank says it will not roll back austerity measures to tackle the EU debt crisis, which is adding to investor concerns. In Britain, the FTSE 100 finished down 2.5%, while Wall Street declined 1% after the Fed signalled it may not provide any more stimulus.

The Spanish government was hoping to sell up to 3.5 billion euros ($4.6 billion; £2.9 billion) of medium-term bonds. However, it was only able to secure buyers for 2.6 billion euros. The country once again raised some concerns over great levels of sovereign debt from several EU member states.

Achilleas Georgolopoulos from Lloyds Banking Group says Spain’s bond sale has been "very disappointing", as market sentiments were further damaged by a survey revealing continuing weakness in the EU services sector.

Also dropped was the price of petroleum and other benchmark commodities. While light sweet crude dropped 2.4% to $101.46 per barrel, Brent crude dropped by $2.17 to $122.69.

Gold also fell 3.3%, while copper dropped 2.8%, sending UK-listed miners even lower. BHP Billiton dropped 3.4% while Rio Tinto also dropped 3.8%.