After about one minute of trading, it was down 4 percent, and in the following minutes, the decimals continued to tick slightly downward.
Thus, the Oslo Stock Exchange follows the trend after the markets in Asia closed in free fall on Monday. Japan’s Nikkei index fell 12.4 percent on Monday, while the broader Topix index was down 12.23 percent. Global markets are shaking over figures from the American economy.
The Nikkei decline is the index’s worst since “Black Monday” in October 1987, when it plummeted 14.9 percent.
Oil prices are also continuing to fall on Monday. A barrel of North Sea oil cost $75.86 on Monday morning. This is the lowest since December, writes E24.
Blood Red Day in Asia
The Seoul Stock Exchange was down 10.75 percent, and in Taiwan, the decline was over 8 percent. In Singapore, there was a decline of 4 percent, and in Sydney, it was down 3 percent. A press conference is being called on Monday in Taipei to try to calm the market.
The biggest losers are major technology companies, including TSMC in Taiwan, which accounts for large parts of the world’s production of data chips. TSMC’s stock price is down 10 percent.
Fear of Recession
Already at the opening of the Tokyo Stock Exchange, the indices plummeted by 7 percent. Since the peak on July 11, the Nikkei index has fallen more than 20 percent, and the drop since Friday is the steepest ever over two days.
The decline on Monday is linked to weak job numbers from the US, contributing to fears of recession, as well as currency developments in Japan, where the yen strengthened against the US dollar to the highest level since January after an interest rate hike.
– The job numbers in the US for July were weaker than expected, which increases fears that the US economy is weakening more than anticipated. This leads to selling across a wide range of stocks, writes IwaiCosmo Securities.
The Hong Kong Stock Exchange also started the day with a decline, but the drop was not as steep as in Tokyo. The Hang Seng index was down 1.59 percent in morning trading on Monday.
Weak Numbers in the US
The New York exchanges fell on Friday when the figures for July showed a significantly weaker labor market than expected. The Dow Jones index was down 1.5 percent, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq fell 2.4 percent. European exchanges also fell.
The decline started only a few days after stock prices in New York were at their highest level in several months, after central bank chief Jerome Powell said that inflation had come down enough to consider an interest rate cut.
However, weak figures for industrial production are creating fear in the market that Powell has postponed for too long to cut rates and that the US economy may be heading for recession, with increasing unemployment and weaker consumption.
The sharp downturn in Asia is a forewarning of a difficult day also on the European exchanges. Preliminary figures before the markets open indicate that the decline from Friday continues.
On Monday morning, the Norwegian crown was weakened in the wake of turmoil in international trade, and it didn’t help that the price of a barrel of oil fell by 3 dollars on Friday.