Stock Market, Stocks Down | featured news

Crude-oil futures continued Friday's slide on growing fears that the U.S. is heading back into recession.

Wall Street ended a fourth week of losses on a down note on Friday as most buyers left the market before the weekend on growing fears of another U.S. recession and destabilization in Europe's financial system.

Stock markets in Asia opened sharply lower Friday amid signs of a possible U.S. recession and renewed worries over the financial health of Europe's banks.

World stocks fell on Thursday as heightened worries about sluggish economic recovery prompted investors to cut exposure to riskier assets, while the Swiss franc fell as the central bank took further steps to halt its steady rise.

Stocks resumed their downward slide in early trading Wednesday as investors retreated from the initial optimism that greeted the Federal Reserve's decision the day before to keep interest rates low.

The sell-off comes in reaction to the downgrade on U.S. debt by Standard & Poor's. Accelerating fears of a new global recession sent the Dow Jones industrial average plunging more than 600 points as Washington policymakers scrambled to contain the damage fueled by reaction to the U.S. credit rating downgrade.

Wall Street stocks plummeted Monday morning on the first-ever downgrade of the United States' credit rating, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunging as much as 380 points in the first hour of trading.

More than $2.5 trillion have been wiped off the value of world stocks this week on mounting concerns the global economy is heading toward another recession.

Stocks' downward spiral picked up speed near the end of trading Tuesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost more than 250 points and closed below 12K for the first time since June.

Signs that American consumers were pulling back on their spending added to growing concerns about the direction of the economy.