Uncertainty over jobs after record market fall...
AS grave uncertainty hangs over the future of thousands of jobs at Irish branches of recession-slammed US firms, markets are not expected to rebound quickly from yesterday’s record-breaking fall.
At home, the ISEQ index of Irish shares’ closing figure was its lowest for more than five years. Across Europe, the trend was similarly dismal for a second day, with the FTSE Eurofirst 300 index falling 2.6% to its worst close since May 2005.
The stock market shock waves followed the collapse of investment bank Lehman Brothers, the 158-year-old fourth largest financial institution in the US.
In response, central banks around the globe pumped funds into the money markets, including €70bn from the European Central Bank, $50bn (€70.5bn) from the US Federal Reserve and £20bn (€25.2bn) from the Bank of England.
Lehman’s bankruptcy filing, the biggest in US history, followed Merrill Lynch & Co’s decision at the weekend to sell itself to Bank of America. Last week, the US government took over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the mortgage finance companies.
Today, all eyes will be on another potential US casualty, the insurance behemoth AIG, which has 74 million customers worldwide and employs 150 people here.
Further dread on the Irish employment front has been generated by Hewlett Packard, the world’s largest maker of personal computers, which is to embark on a global cull of more than 24,000 jobs.
HP employs more than 4,000 staff in Ireland across a range of operations in locations in Leixlip, Dublin, Galway and Belfast. It was unclear last night whether Irish jobs would be lost as a result of the cuts.
Shares in Irish banks were hammered by concerns of the Lehman Brothers fallout through credit derivative contracts.
According to financial sources, it could be months before the full extent of this potential impact is known.
AIB fell 56 cent to €6.95, and Irish Life & Permanent dropped 52 cent to €5.34. Bank of Ireland lost 3.35% on the day to €4.62. Another casualty was building group CRH, which lost 75 cent to €17.70.
France’s CAC 40 and Germany’s Dax also registered falls, while London’s leading shares also plunged to a three-year low.
Back in the US, the Federal Reserve kept interest rates steady, despite pressures from shaky financial markets to ease borrowing costs to help reduce the risk of greater turmoil on Wall Street.
Report by Dan Collins - Irish Examiner Newspaper.
- Just when you thought things couldn't get worse in Ireland!!!
AS grave uncertainty hangs over the future of thousands of jobs at Irish branches of recession-slammed US firms, markets are not expected to rebound quickly from yesterday’s record-breaking fall.
At home, the ISEQ index of Irish shares’ closing figure was its lowest for more than five years. Across Europe, the trend was similarly dismal for a second day, with the FTSE Eurofirst 300 index falling 2.6% to its worst close since May 2005.
The stock market shock waves followed the collapse of investment bank Lehman Brothers, the 158-year-old fourth largest financial institution in the US.
In response, central banks around the globe pumped funds into the money markets, including €70bn from the European Central Bank, $50bn (€70.5bn) from the US Federal Reserve and £20bn (€25.2bn) from the Bank of England.
Lehman’s bankruptcy filing, the biggest in US history, followed Merrill Lynch & Co’s decision at the weekend to sell itself to Bank of America. Last week, the US government took over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the mortgage finance companies.
Today, all eyes will be on another potential US casualty, the insurance behemoth AIG, which has 74 million customers worldwide and employs 150 people here.
Further dread on the Irish employment front has been generated by Hewlett Packard, the world’s largest maker of personal computers, which is to embark on a global cull of more than 24,000 jobs.
HP employs more than 4,000 staff in Ireland across a range of operations in locations in Leixlip, Dublin, Galway and Belfast. It was unclear last night whether Irish jobs would be lost as a result of the cuts.
Shares in Irish banks were hammered by concerns of the Lehman Brothers fallout through credit derivative contracts.
According to financial sources, it could be months before the full extent of this potential impact is known.
AIB fell 56 cent to €6.95, and Irish Life & Permanent dropped 52 cent to €5.34. Bank of Ireland lost 3.35% on the day to €4.62. Another casualty was building group CRH, which lost 75 cent to €17.70.
France’s CAC 40 and Germany’s Dax also registered falls, while London’s leading shares also plunged to a three-year low.
Back in the US, the Federal Reserve kept interest rates steady, despite pressures from shaky financial markets to ease borrowing costs to help reduce the risk of greater turmoil on Wall Street.
Report by Dan Collins - Irish Examiner Newspaper.
- Just when you thought things couldn't get worse in Ireland!!!