TOKYO, (APP/AFP) – Asian stocks plunged
the board Tuesday, the dollar dived against the yen, gold jumped and yields on Japanese government bonds fell to zero as fears about the global economy sent investors scrambling to safety.
While most the the region is closed for the Chinese New Year holiday,
trading remained thin but dealers took their lead from New York and Europe
where banking shares led a rout.
The sell-off is the latest this year, which has hammered trading
floors from Asia to the Americas.
The latest round of blood-letting came on the back of worries about
the financial sector as the global economy slows down, without the support of the Federal Reserve’s easy monetary policies.
London, Paris and Frankfurt all finished down more than 2.5 percent,
with the German DAX ending below 9,000 for the first time since October 2014. And Wall Street’s three main indexes all lost more than one percent.
Financials were in focus as a slowdown in the world economy raises
the prospect of loan defaults and lower interest rates, which eat into their bottom lines.
Banking stocks sagged in New York and Europe, with US titan Bank of
America, Germany’s Deutsche Bank and France’s Societe Generale all tanking.