Shares Slide Amid Global Economic Fears

August 08, 2011 from Euronews

The world's financial markets remain extremely volatile with investors sending a message to politicians worldwide that they are not doing enough to address the problems threatening the global economic recovery. The downgrade of the United States' credit rating on Friday by Standard & Poor's reignited fears the world's biggest economy could slip into recession again, and there was a big sell off of European shares by the early afternoon, despite the fact the European Central Bank was buying Spanish and Italian government bonds to try to stop the European debt crisis spreading, perhaps limiting damage in Madrid and Milan.

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Standard & Poor's

Standard & Poor's is an American financial services company. It is a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies that publishes financial research and analysis on stocks and bonds. S&P is known for its stock market indices such as the U.S.-based S&P 500, the Australian S&P/ASX 200, ... Explore this topic

European Central Bank

The European Central Bank is one of the seven institutions of the European Union listed in the Treaty on European Union. It is the central bank for the euro and administers the monetary policy of the 17 EU member states which constitute the Eurozone, one of the largest currenc... Explore this topic

World economy

The world economy, or global economy, generally refers to the economy, which is based on economies of all of the world's countries, national economies. Also global economy can be seen as the economy of global society and national economies – as economies of local societies, ma... Explore this topic

Credit rating

A credit rating evaluates the credit worthiness of a debtor, especially a business or a government. It is an evaluation made by a credit rating agency of the debtor's ability to pay back the debt and the likelihood of default. Credit ratings are determined by credit ratings ag... Explore this topic

European sovereign debt crisis

The European sovereign debt crisis is an ongoing financial crisis that has made it difficult or impossible for some countries in the euro area to repay or re-finance their government debt without the assistance of third parties. In 1992, members of the European Union signed th... Explore this topic

US economy

Throughout this article, the unqualified term "dollar" and the $ symbol refer to the US dollar. The economy of the United States is the world's largest national economy. Its nominal GDP was estimated to be over $15 trillion in 2011, approximately a quarter of nominal global GD... Explore this topic

Economy of Italy

Italy has a diversified industrial economy with high gross domestic product (GDP) per capita and developed infrastructure. According to the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the CIA World Factbook, in 2010 Italy was the seventh-largest economy in the world and th... Explore this topic

Economy of Spain

The economy of Spain is the twelfth-largest economy in the world, based on nominal GDP comparisons, and the fifth-largest in Europe. It is regarded as the world's 23th most developed country. Until 2008 the economy of Spain had been regarded as one of the most dynamic within t... Explore this topic

Recession

In economics, a recession is a business cycle contraction, a general slowdown in economic activity. Macroeconomic indicators such as GDP, employment, investment spending, capacity utilization, household income, business profits, and inflation fall, while bankruptcies and the u... Explore this topic

Italy

Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a unitary parliamentary republic in Southern Europe. To the north, it borders France, Switzerland, Austria, and Slovenia along the Alps. To the south, it consists of the entirety of the Italian Peninsula, Sicily, Sardinia–the two larg... Explore this topic

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Standard & Poor's

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