Europe: Everybody's Doing It, Doing It

Following the Japanese example that is and falling to multi year lows:

European bourses came off their worst levels in mid-morning trade but still hovered around multi-year lows after Wall Street ended in the red following a negative update from Intel, the world's largest semiconductor maker.Sentiment was also dented ahead of a key report from Hans Blix, the UN weapons inspector, to the Security Council later on Friday. Fears of imminent military action in Iraq intensified overnight after George W. Bush, the US president, accused Saddam Hussein of engagaing in "a willful charade".Tony Blair, the UK prime minister, added oil to the fire when he said he was prepared to defy the vetoes of more than one state if he believed they had been cast unreasonably.Many European bourses were again trading near multi-year lows as investors struggled to find a positive catalyst for the suffering markets.By 0950 GMT, the Eurotop 00 index was down 1.1 per cent at 730.8. In France, the CAC 40 recovered half of its early losses to trade 0.9 per cent lower at 2,611.2, slipping below the key 2,612 points support level. Frankfurt's Xetra Dax was 0.2 per cent weaker at 2,433.4 having earlier been at its lowest level since March 1996. In London the FTSE 100 shed 0.9 per cent to 3,522.6. The US markets slid overnight and the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 101.61 points at 7,673.99 while the Nasdaq closed 11.51 lower at 1,302.89.
Source: Financial Times
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