ASX has another dismal day
Sharemarket volatility continued on Thursday when the ASX 200 lost 2.4 per cent of its value, closing at 5095.
While this was a particularly bad day – the second-worst in three years – in general this sort of wild volatility has become very much the norm in recent weeks.
• Jobless rate falls slightly
• RBA talks up Aussie economy
Three days ago the ASX 200 was at 5030. It then gained almost 200 points over the next two days, before losing them again on Thursday.
Year-to-date returns now stand at -1.09 per cent, and full year returns at -2.83 per cent.
Most of the losses came in the first hour of opening, in response to a bad day on the US stock markets.
The S&P 500 closed down 1.39 per cent, while the NASDAQ lost 1.15 per cent.
The Japanese stock market had an even worse day than the ASX, losing 2.5 per cent as of 5pm EST.
All this came on a day when Citi Group’s chief economist estimated there is a 55 per cent chance of another global recession over the next two years.
Standard and Poor’s, meanwhile, trimmed its forecast for Australian GDP growth to 2.5 per cent in 2015 and 2016, and 2.9 per cent in 2017.