A sudden turnabout on Wall Street demolished earlier stability that saw London's FTSE 100 recoup well over 100 points of Thursday's 157-point slide. There were no new stories behind Wall Street's abrupt reversal, which saw the Dow Jones Industrial Average relinquish an initial gain of more than 50 points, and slide in excess of 100 points, before coming off its worst levels not long after London finished for the day.
"The market felt pretty good during the morning and nothing has changed since then, except Wall Street, and you simply can't ignore that. It feels as if we're going to have to endure a very uncomfortable Monday morning," said the head trader at one of the big European securities houses yesterday.
He emphasised that the sudden fall took place when London was at its most vulnerable: a Friday afternoon after a particularly harrowing week for the market, when most traders were looking to get away for the weekend.
The week has seen the stock market coping with the 10th anniversary of the great crash of October 1987; the impact of the restating of British government policy over European monetary union; and the move from quotedriven to order-driven trading.
Earlier, a bounce in Hong Kong brought similar moves across global markets. There was also widespread relief over Wall Street's performance on Thursday night, when the closing fall in the Dow Jones Industrial Average was restricted to 186.8, or 2.3 per cent.
