Overseas markets hurt by yesterday’s NASDAQ drop

In Canada, market drops have also slowed Statistics Canada leading indicators composite index. “The growth of the leading indicator slowed from 1.2% in March to 0.9% in April, as household demand lost some of the vigour it had at the start of the year and as financial markets slowed,” says StatsCan. ” Stock markets faltered for the first time since October 1999. The financial market components had driven much of the acceleration in the overall composite index since that month; without them, growth would have been kept to an average of 0.5% since October 1999 and returned to 0.4% in April.”

European equity markets are suffering today. There have been sharp losses among technology, media and telecoms stocks, following the plunge of NASDAQ composite index in the US.

At midday London’s FTSE stands at 6104.90. It’s the only index that’s risen and is up marginally – 0.3%. Paris’s CAC is down 1.6% to 6049.87. Germany DAX is also down, dropping 1.3% today to 6837.72.

In Asia, the markets reacted strongly to the NASDAQ drop. The Hang Seng lost 2.3%, falling to 13933.90. The Nikkei lost 1.7%, slipping to 16044.40.