AMD leads fallers in another bad week for stocks

source: hexus.net
The spectre of a double-dip recession remained foremost in investors' minds as Western stock markets fell to their lowest levels since last autumn.

The FTSE 100 ended the week below 5,000 and the Dow ended below 10,000. This is the first time the two indexes have spent a significant period below those psychological thresholds since last September and November, respectively.

The biggest drag on stocks seems to be gloomy data coming from the States. The Telegraph reports one of the sharpest ever jumps in US unemployment in June and has the following comments from former US labour secretary Robert Reich: "The economy is still in the gravitational pull of the Great Recession. All the booster rockets for getting us beyond it are failing."