ITALY ON THE EDGE: Italian banks face further losses as investor fears grow over debt

CONFIDENCE in Italy’s banks and the wider economy is falling apart, as investors continue to digest Britain’s vote to leave the European Union (EU).

Pointing to real fears over the future of the bloc, Europe’s top stock markets have failed to recover from the shock of the Brexit vote.

In stark contrast, Britain’s premier index the FTSE 100 has left its continental counterparts in the dust.

Iran sanctions: Middle East stock crash wipes £27bn off markets as Tehran enters oil war

Prospect of the Islamic Republic pumping an additional 500,000 barrels a day sends stock markets in Dubai and Saudi Arabia into tailspin

Stock markets across the Middle East saw more than £27bn wiped off their value as the lifting of economic sanctions against Iran threatened to unleash a fresh wave of oil onto global markets that are already drowning in excess supply.

All seven stock markets in the Gulf states tumbled as panic gripped traders. London shares are now braced for a second wave of crisis to hit when they open on Monday morning after contagion from China sent the FTSE 100 to its worst start in history last week.

FINANCIAL WARNING: More TURMOIL expected as Chinese markets MELTDOWN to continue

The FTSE 100 bounced back into the green at the open, and above the 6,000 mark, before falling back to hover at around 5961 by late moring.

It follows a catastrophic day yesterday when the index measuring the value of Britain’s largest companies shed billions of pounds in value and closed down by almost two per cent, after China’s stock markets plunged seven per cent and closed for the second time in a week.

The losses came amid a stark warning by the Chancellor over the threat to the economy.

Global markets tumble as commodity prices fall into ‘death spiral’

 

Britain’s benchmark index falls into correction territory as US stocks suffer biggest fall since February 2014

The FTSE 100 fell into official correction territory on Thursday, one point shy of January’s year-low hit, after an eighth consecutive day of losses.

Fraught with concerns about slowing growth in China and the after-effects of last week’s devaluation of the yuan, investors fled to the side lines, bringing this week’s losses to 2.5pc. The FTSE 100 closed 35.56 lower at 6,367.89.

Doomsday clock for global market crash strikes one minute to midnight as central banks lose control

China currency devaluation signals endgame leaving equity markets free to collapse under the weight of impossible expectations

When the banking crisis crippled global markets seven years ago, central bankers stepped in as lenders of last resort. Profligate private-sector loans were moved on to the public-sector balance sheet and vast money-printing gave the global economy room to heal.

Time is now rapidly running out. From China to Brazil, the central banks have lost control and at the same time the global economy is grinding to a halt. It is only a matter of time before stock markets collapse under the weight of their lofty expectations and record valuations.

The FTSE 100 has now erased its gains for the year, but there are signs things could get a whole lot worse.

Ten warning signs of a market crash in 2015

Stock markets opened lower on the first day of trading of 2015, and the credit markets that forewarned the 2007 crash are showing signs of strain

The FTSE 100 slid on the first day of trading in 2015. Here are 10 warning signs that the markets may drop further

Vix fear gauge

For five years, investor fear of risk has been drugged into somnolence by repeated injections of quantitative easing. The lack of fear has led to a world where price and risk have become estranged. As credit conditions are tightened in the US and China, the law of unintended consequences will hold sway in 2015 as investors wake up. The Vix, the so-called “fear index” that measures volatility, spiked to 18.4 on Friday, above the average of 14.5 recorded last year.

‘Violent’ stock market crash could be round the corner as hidden liquidity crunch ‘blows up’ in investors’ faces, warns think-tank

• Bank of International Settlements warns of ‘violent’ market crash
• Low levels of market volatility persist despite conflicts and crises across the world
• Investors buying assets on the misguided presumption of a level of liquidity
• Share prices continue to plummet as investor confidence decreases

A potentially ‘violent’ stock market crash could be on the horizon as financial markets become dangerously stretched, a think-tank has warned.

The Bank of International Settlements said that suspiciously low levels of volatility in the markets seen this year suggest a lack of liquidity that could trip up investors who assume they can dispense of assets when a sell-off begins.

ECB could pump €1tn into eurozone in fresh round of quantitative easing

Mario Draghi suggested the bank could act to prevent dangerous deflation in comments cheered by European investors

The European Central Bank is ready to pump up to €1tn (£782bn) of fresh stimulus into the flagging eurozone economy to ward off a dangerous deflationary spiral, Mario Draghi has signalled.

Draghi, the ECB’s president, said on Thursday that the bank’s governing council was unanimously willing to announce more unconventional measures, signalling the possibility of creating electronic money – or quantitative easing – should a deteriorating economy make it necessary.

Market report: Citi warns of geopolitical tremors

Investors’ “indifference” to the threats “is unlikely to last”, the US bank has warned

On what was the worst day for the FTSE 100 since March, Citigroup sounded an ominous warning for investors.

Geopolitical risks, including the rise of jihadist extremists in the Middle East and simmering tensions between Russia and the West, are “proliferating”, said analysts at the US bank, while investors’ “indifference” to the threats “is unlikely to last”.

Citi’s timing was apt. Geopolitical factors helped to drive the 97.55-point fall to 6,676.08 suffered by London’s benchmark index, with brokers citing the air strikes in Syria by the US and its allies as a reason for the sell-off, as well as the downing of a Syrian fighter jet by Israel.

Over-heating stock markets raise crash fears

The UK’s top professional investors think stock markets in the UK and US are over-valued raising fears of a crash

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The number of investors who think the world’s leading stock markets such as the S&P 500 and the FTSE 100 are overvalued has reached its highest level yet, according to a survey of professional money managers completed by the CFA Society of the UK.