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European shares open lower after US-led slide

The Dow was up 141 points, or 0.6 percent, at 24,483.

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USA crude oil dropped 1 percent to settle at $61.15 a barrel, while Brent fell 1.1 percent to $64.81.

United States markets have been under pressure all week, with the Dow notching its biggest loss ever in terms of points on Monday, rallying on Tuesday and finishing modestly lower Wednesday. Then you can decide to dial it back to 6% if you want.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng is down 9.5% on the week, its worst weekly fall for more than a decade.

In contrast, the last three bull markets have lasted almost nine years on average.

Shares on Wall Street have bounced backed after Thursday’s alarming 4 percent plunge.

IBD’S TAKE: After the Thursday, Feb. 1, market action – and before Friday’s and Monday’s market drubbings – IBD changed its market outlook to “uptrend under pressure” from “confirmed uptrend”, the equivalent of a green light turning yellow.

“There has been extraordinary volatility throughout this week”.

The market’s main gauge of volatility, the CBOE Volatility Index, was at 30.65 points on Friday, down 3 from Thursday, but more than double its 50-day moving average of 13.

The million-dollar question, as with every market sell-off, is whether the declines will prove to be a short-term blip or the start of a more pronounced market correction, possibly triggering the start of a bear market.

That concern has prompted the pull-back from stocks.

“The run-up on the market was awesome”.

‘Historically we are still at very low levels of inflation.

Over $5 trillion has been wiped from global stock markets since January 26, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices.

The technology-laden Nasdaq and the broad Standard & Poor’s 500 stock indexes also drifted lower during the day – and each was down more than 3 percent. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 2.86 per cent from 2.83 per cent late Thursday.

The fall came after the Bank of England said interest rates probably need to rise sooner than previously expected.

“A lot of people who have been in this market for the past three or four years have never seen this before”, said Dennis Dick, a proprietary trader at Bright Trading LLC in Las Vegas. Rates may have to go up to attract buyers for those bonds.

Some say the fluctuations are because of the good news, with fears that an overheated economy and nascent inflation will push the Federal Reserve to raise rates. It’s harder to do than you’d think, because it’s easier emotionally to put more money to work in the market when share prices are going up and you can get positive feedback from your account statements.

Oil prices fell to their lowest in seven weeks amid fears of rising global supplies after Iran announced plans to increase production and US crude output hit record highs.

“Too late to sell, too early to buy … That feels like where we are”, Colas wrote in a report. It rose by as much as 381 points at its peak, but also fell by as much as 127 points at its lowest ebb.

Other stocks that have struggled this week include 3M, American Express and Exxon Mobil, down more than 10 percent as oil prices continue to slide. He said investors are now selling because they are afraid of bigger losses if they stand pat.

While the market turbulence can be alarming, analysts urged investors to stay calm because the economic backdrop is strong.

“The last thing anybody should do is overreact to traditional volatility”, Guerrini said.

Despite the heavy losses this week, the Dow remains up 32% since Trump’s election.

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Corrections are seen as entirely normal occurrences, and the market, now in its second-longest bull run of all time, hasn’t seen one in two years, an unusually long time.

Trader Robert Charmak left works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Thursday Feb. 8 2018