The outlook for North American stocks fell again on Friday, with indices in Asia and Europe tumbling and futures trading pointing to another session of losses over growing fear of a world-wide recession.

Asian markets fell sharply overnight after a late-day rout Thursday in North America.

Tokyo’s Nikkei Index dropped 881.06 points, or 9.6%, to 8276.43, its lowest level since May 2003.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index plunged 7.2%.

Midday in Europe, the UK’s FTSE 100 Index was down 7.9% at 3,974.40. France’s CAC-40 Index dropped 9% to 3,131.99, while Germany’s DAX Index tumbled 9.8% to 4,407.17

Finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of Seven industrialized nations meet today in Washington to address the financial meltdown.

Here at home, there was some good news on the jobs front and the Canadian government announced measures designed to stabilize the lending market.

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty announced that Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. will buy as much as $25 billion worth of debts from Canadian financial institutions.

On the jobs front, the Canadian economy generated a record 107,000 new jobs in September. Despite the increase, the unemployment rate was unchanged at 6.1%.

The Canadian dollar continued its retreat, falling 1.38¢ to US85.90¢ after losing US1.78¢ on Thrusday..

In commodities news, crude oil slid US$3.86 to US$82.73 on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Gold gained US$34.70 to US$921.20 an ounce.

In today’s earnings news, General Electric reported a third-quarter profit of US$4.5 billion, down 12% from a year earlier as revenue rose 11% to US$47.2 billion. The firm said its results were pulled lower by its financial-services segment.

On Thursday, Toronto stocks plunged late in the session. the S&P/TSX composite index closed down 456.13 points, or 4.54%, at 9,600.18. as oil prices dropped and nervous investors shied away from turbulent financial stocks.

The S&P/TSX Venture composite index shed 30.97 points, or 2.89%, to close at 1,041.67.

In New York, stocks experienced a late-day drop of their own. On the anniversary of the Dow Jones industrial average’s all time high, the index shed 678.91 points, to close at 8,579.19 — down 7.33% for the day, and a 40% drop from one year ago.

The S&P 500 index lost 75.02 points, or 7.62%, to close at 909.92. The Nasdaq index shed 95.21 points, or 5.47%, to close at 1,645.12.