European markets dived into the red on Wednesday morning, and they don't look they'll be coming out any time soon.
All major stock indexes were lower by around 2% or more at the open, and have kept falling since then, with all but a couple down by more than 3% as of 1:05 p.m. GMT (8:05 a.m. ET). The CAC 40 in France, and the FTSE MIB in Italy are the biggest losers.
Right now Italy's benchmark is trading down by around 3.5% to 18,220 points, while the CAC has dropped 3.4%, or roughly 145 points. Here's how the CAC 40 looks:
It's no better on the other major indexes either. Here's the league table right now:
- Britain's FTSE100 — down 3.15%
- Germany's DAX 30 — down 2.85%
- Spain's IBEX35 — down 2.95%
- Euro Stoxx 50 — down 3.15%
The collapse is down to a cocktail of a market bloodbath in Asia and another day of sliding oil prices. China's benchmark index, the Shanghai Composite finished down around 1% at 2976.69 on Wednesday, having fallen by as much as 2% during the day.
The Chinese stock slump pushed markets across Asia downwards, with Australia's ASX200 falling 1.26%, and indexes in South Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore all also falling.
Asia's biggest loser was the Nikkei 225 in Japan, which dropped 3.71% to its lowest closing level since October 2014. It puts Japan in official bear market territory.
Oil also continued its crash overnight, and at one point Brent, the European crude benchmark dropped below $28 per barrel. As of 1:05 p.m. GMT (8:05 a.m. ET) Brent is down 2.7%, dropping below $28 per barrel for a second time on the day, while WTI is down just over 2.7%, and is trading at $28.77.
And just when we thought the markets might be calming down a little.
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