World markets slumped on Friday as investors awaited confirmation of what many people have felt for some time: The U.S. economy barely has a pulse.
Investors fretful about a slowing global recovery were awaiting a speech by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke as well as revised U.S. economic growth data for the second quarter that is expected to confirm the slowing pace of the economic recovery.
Signs world growth is losing momentum have rattled world markets in recent weeks. Investors were awaiting a guidance from Bernanke, who is expected to give insight on whether the Fed will support the struggling economy with fresh injections of cash.
His comments on the U.S. economy, the world's largest, might give investors some insight into how deep the slowdown will be.
The revised U.S. economic growth data for the second quarter is expected to confirm the slowing pace of the economic recovery, in the wake of this week's bleak housing data.
"The market has been overreacting to the flow of sluggish data. The U.S. economic recovery is grinding to a halt but it doesn't mean it will slip back into recession," said Francois Chevallier, strategist at Banque Leonardo in Paris told Reuters.
Britain's FTSE 100 stock index was down 0.4 percent at 5,133.51, France's CAC-40 shed 0.6 percent to 3,453.39 and Germany's DAX fell 0.4 percent to 5,889.88.
Asian indexes were mostly lower at the close and Wall Street looked set to open little changed — Dow industrial average futures were up 0.1 percent at 9,978.00 and Standard & Poor's 500 futures were up 0.1 percent at 1,046.10.
U.S. dampens sentiment
Expectations that the United States will revise down economic growth for the April-June quarter from an annual pace of 2.4 percent announced earlier has dampened sentiment worldwide. Economists now expect that GDP rose at a very modest annual rate of 1.4 percent.
Bernanke will address a symposium of global policymakers in Jackson Hole, Wyo., later in the day, and all eyes will be on his views of the U.S. economic slowdown. Analysts, however, caution that the Fed is overall reluctant to loosen its monetary policy significantly.
"Bernanke is likely to keep the door open to such a move, but he will also stress that this is conditional on the data getting sufficiently worse to warrant this," said Daragh Maher, foreign exchange analyst at Credit Agricole.
"The hawkish mood of many Fed members suggests the bar will be pretty high on this front."
In Asia, Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 stock average recovered from early losses to close 1 percent higher at 8,991.06 on news that Prime Minister Naoto Kan was meeting reporters to discuss how the government will handle the yen's surge in value.
A pledge by Japan's finance minister to work more closely with the central bank to curb the yen's rise helped boost exporters. Sentiment was buoyed, also, by the government's report Friday that the jobless rate in July fell to 5.2 percent from 5.3 percent in June — the first decline in six months.
Chinese investors buy
Chinese investors resumed buying to boost the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index by 0.3 percent to 2,610.74. But the gains were capped by mixed earnings from major companies and uncertainty over whether the government will loosen tight credit policies as the economy slows.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 0.1 percent to 20,597.35 while South Korea's Kospi dropped less than 0.1 percent. But shares in most other markets were higher, with Australia's S&P/ASX 200 up 0.3 percent and Taiwan's benchmark adding 0.4 percent.
In New York on Thursday, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 0.7 percent to 9,985.81. The Dow had traded below 10,000 several times this week, but hadn't closed below that level since July 6.
In currencies, the dollar rose to 84.73 yen from 84.28 yen in New York late Thursday. The euro rose to $1.2717 from $1.2702.
Benchmark crude for October delivery was down 13 cents at $73.23 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose 84 cents to settle at $73.36 on Thursday.
