World Stocks Tumble
World stocks swooned Monday on the heels of Wall Street's 2.7% drop Friday.
Shares in Asia slid overnight, led by a 2.2% decline in Japan's Nikkei and a 3.7% plunge in Hong Kong's Hang Seng. Other Asian markets were also in the red, with South Korea's Kospi slipping 3.3% and Taiwan down 2.6%. The lone market in the black was India, whose Sensex rose 0.3%.
Stocks followed suit in Europe, with France's Cac off 0.5% and Britain's FTSE and Germany's Dax each off just over 1%.
The selloff came even amid news reports of a big linkup between a Chinese bank and struggling U.S. investment house
Bear Stearns
(BSC)
.
The Wall Street Journal
reported China's Citic Bank and Bear would invest $1 billion in each other. Rumors have swirled since this summer that Bear would be forced by problems tied to the subprime mortgage market to find a deep-pocketed global partner.
Elsewhere in the news Monday, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and
Goldman Sachs
(GS) - Get Report
called off their acquisition of
Harman International
(HAR)
but agreed to invest $400 million in the company.