Associated Press
October 8, 2008
NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street extended its huge decline Wednesday as an emergency interest rate cut failed to alleviate investors’ fears that the paralysis in the credit markets will set off a global recession. The Dow Jones industrials, already down 875 points this week, fell another 200, and all the major indexes were down sharply.
- A d v e r t i s e m e n t
The rate cut by the Federal Reserve and other leading central banks failed to convince investors that credit markets would soon relax and that banks would begin lending more freely to businesses and consumers. The Fed lowered rates by a half-point, saying in a statement that the turmoil in financial markets posed a further threat to an already shaky economy; it was joined in the rate cut by the European Central Bank, Bank of England, The Bank of Canada, the Swedish Riksbank and the Swiss National Bank.
But interest rate changes take months to work their way through the economy, and while investors clearly were happy with the central banks’ actions, they were also well aware that in the near term, banks remain reluctant to lend because of fears they won’t be paid back.
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