| Fears of mortgage reverses in America spreading to the rest of the world and pulling down the global economy sent jitters among investors worldwide. |
| US stock and index futures retreated after General Motors stoked concern that mortgage defaults would spread from the riskiest borrowers to Americans with better credit histories, curbing economic growth. |
| Stocks in Europe and Asia tumbled, as concern deepened that rising US home-loan delinquencies will curtail expansion in the world's biggest economy. |
| Standard & Poor's 500 Index futures expiring in June lost 2.2 to 1389.70 at 8:56 am in New York. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures slid 34 to 12,155, and Nasdaq-100 Index futures dropped 3.25 to 1741. |
| All 88 financial stocks in the S&P 500 fell yesterday, including Bear Stearns Co, which lost the most since the first trading day after the September 2001 terrorist attacks. |
| A selloff in Chinese equities helped trigger a global rout that began at the end of last month, wiping $3.3 trillion from the value of world markets. Before the index dropped in February, the S&P 500 had rallied for eight consecutive months. |
| General Motors lost 51 cents to $30. Fourth-quarter operating profit was 32 cents a share, missing the average analyst estimate in a Bloomberg survey by 90 cents because of higher-than-expected losses at a mortgage unit that is 49 per cent owned by GM. |
| H&R Block fell $1.80 to $18.25. The company said it will post $29 million more in pretax losses from subprime mortgages than first reported last month, and its third-quarter regulatory filings will be delayed. |
| Lehman Brothers Holdings fell $1.17 to $70.83 even after the securities firm said fourth-quarter profit was $1.96 a share, beating the $1.95 average analyst estimate. |
| Lehman, the second-largest underwriter in the mortgage-backed bond market, yesterday dropped the most since October 2002 amid concern about how much a slide in subprime lending will hurt Wall Street firms. Bear Stearns, the biggest underwriter of mortgage-backed bonds, lost $1.04 to $141.93, extending yesterday's tumble. |
| European stocks slumped following a slide in global markets sparked by concern loan delinquencies will hurt growth in the US, the world's largest economy. UBS, Europe's largest bank by assets, fell to a six-month low and Royal Bank of Scotland group had the biggest daily loss in almost three years. |
| Legal & General Group declined after saying profit margins are likely to narrow. |
| The Dow Jones Stoxx 600 Index slid 2 per cent to 354.52 as of 1:08 pm in London, with all 18 industry groups falling. The Stoxx 50 dropped 2 per cent, while the Euro Stoxx 50, a measure for the 13 nations sharing the euro, declined 1.8 per cent. |
| The housing troubles renewed speculation about another global rout in equities. The Stoxx 600 Index is now 7.3 per cent below a six-year high reached on February 19 after a sell-off last month wiped $3.3 trillion from the value of world markets. |
| National benchmarks fell in all 18 western European markets. The UK's FTSE 100, Germany's DAX and France's CAC all declined 1.7 per cent. |
| UBS tumbled 3.8 per cent to 67.55 Swiss francs. The bank was subpoenaed by Massachusetts financial-industry regulators looking into why it wrote upbeat reports on subprime mortgage lenders. |
| Royal Bank of Scotland, which owns Citizens Financial group in the US, declined 4.6 per cent to 1,953 pence. |
| "We'd be cautious on banks,'' said Manuel Martin, an equity strategist at WGZ Bank in Frankfurt. "The current weakness goes back to US mortgage delinquencies.'' |
| HSBC Holdings, the region's largest bank by market value, dropped 2.2 per cent to 883 pence. Bad subprime loans cut the company's second-half profit in North America by 87 per cent. |
| ING Groep declined 2.7 per cent to 30.11 euros. The largest Dutch financial company made about a quarter of its revenue in 2005 in the Americas. |
| The Mortgage Bankers Association said foreclosures are climbing on loans to borrowers with the best credit ratings, a sign of broader trouble in the housing market. |
| Legal & General declined 4.1 per cent to 147.5 pence, the most in three years. The UK life insurer with $450 billion under management said it may face more competition and smaller profit margins in 2007. |
| Hypo Real Estate Holding, Germany's second-biggest commercial property lender, dropped 3.3 per cent to 44.57 euros. |
| The yen rose to a one-week high against the dollar as investors reduced holdings of higher-yielding assets initiated with money borrowed in Japan. |
| The failure by US homebuyers with poor credit histories to pay loans raised speculation traders are abandoning so-called carry trades and buying back the yen. |
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