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00:00Another big story we're covering for you today and stock markets around the world are in turmoil this Monday after a massive sell-off in Asia
00:08Tokyo's Nikkei index saw its worst day since
00:111987 trading on the Kospi in Korea briefly halted due to the volatility
00:16The loss is driven in part by interest rate hikes at the bake of Japan
00:20investors though are also jumping ship over fears of an impending economic slowdown in the u.s.
00:25And the potential for a wider war in the Middle East with the sell-off spreading here in Europe as well
00:31We're gonna get a bit more analysis about all of this by France 24 business editor Brian Quinn who joins me on the set Brian
00:36First of all, talk us through what happened in Asia today
00:38So Jeannie as you were saying a massive sell-off of both Japan and Korea the Nikkei in Tokyo actually breaking its record
00:44For a single day loss nearly 4,500 points
00:48That's twelve point four percent putting it officially into bear market territory as it is now down more than twenty percent
00:54From its most recent peak the Kospi in Seoul not far behind it lost to nearly a nine
01:00percent triggering at one point the markets circuit breaker due to how fast it was falling and one of the big drivers for this
01:07Sell-off in Asia as we were saying is a strengthening yen
01:10The Bank of Japan has been hiking interest rates and cutting its bond purchases as it tries to exit a long-term
01:16Economic stimulus programs and those moves have sent the yen up 14% against the dollar over the past three weeks
01:23It's up around two point seven percent. Even just today. That's good news and bad news for Japan
01:28It's good news for consumers as a week yen has been hurting their purchasing power for a long time now a stronger yen
01:34Also good for small businesses that have to import raw materials to make their goods. It is bad news though for major manufacturers
01:42Particularly Japan's large car makers whose products will now be more expensive on global markets Toyota
01:47Honda Nissan also their share prices fall by around
01:5115% on Monday and the Nikkei has actually been on a bit of a tear this year
01:55It gained around 18% over the first half the year
01:58Those gains are now erased but analysts are trying to keep calm about it. Take a listen here
02:07I think there is some panic selling happening here
02:11The main triggers have been concerns over the US economy along with interest rates rising in Japan
02:17With an unexpectedly hawkish tone from the Bank of Japan governor Kazuo Ueda last week
02:25The background is that up to now short-term investors have been piling into Japanese stocks and we're seeing those positions being
02:33unwound all at once
02:36And that volatility absolutely being felt here in Europe as this global market around
02:42Spreads on a smaller scale though in Europe London
02:45Paris and Frankfurt are all down in the neighborhood of around 2% there
02:50We see Frankfurt down 2.2% the Keck around here in Ariston Paris down around 1.9%
02:56Tech mining and banking sectors are all down on 3 to 5 percent so far Brian the sell-off though didn't start in Asia on Monday
03:03It's a continuation from market losses that we saw last week indeed
03:06In fact the Nikkei actually fell by more than 5% in Friday's
03:10Session and that was a prelude to some significant losses on Wall Street
03:15Later in the Friday session the Nasdaq lost nearly two and a half percent
03:19Investors around the world are starting to worry that what has looked like a soft landing for the US economy could end up being
03:26significantly harder than expected
03:28Earnings reports from major tech firms have been a wave of disappointing figures and that was before
03:34Friday's US jobs report that showed just
03:38114,000 new jobs last month that's well below projections
03:41Meanwhile American manufacturing data is also coming in worse than expected
03:46It's all adding up to fears that the world's largest economy is heading for a major slowdown if not an actual recession
03:53Investors aren't starting to wonder if the US Federal Reserve has held its interest rates too high for too long to bring down inflation
04:00Many now looking for the Fed to start quickly signaling some significant rate cuts in the coming months
04:07All right, Brian. Thank you so much for that. That's our business editor Brian Quinn