US slowdown sparks global equity crash

Very poor Manufacturing and jobs figures from the US yesterday have pushed a very nervous global market over the edge. US Equities dropped by over 2%.

This has been reflected in the Asian markets also, struggling with political turmoil in Japan as the Japanese Prime Minister, Naoto Kan survives a vote of no confidence earlier today.

European markets have already priced in some of the negative US data but is very unlikely to open in a positive frame of mind this morning.

The triple whammy arrives in the shape of a Moody's downgrade of Greek debt  by three notches, making their massive defecit even more expensive to finance. Moody's see the risk of Greek default at 50% at this moment.

How the Eurozone safety net deals with this situation, as their debt is either "reprofiled" "rescheduled" or plain old !" bailed out", is of major importance, coming so soon after the last Greek rescue and will cast a black cloud over the Euro  until it is resolved, probably within the next two days.

Very much a "Risk Off" situation at the moment