Easter’s fresh start for investors could fall victim to a late frost
by Nick Fletcher from on (#18C4H)
Markets in Europe and the Far East have recovered slightly from February's low, but the factors that pushed them into bear territory have by no means gone away
The advice of economists from Royal Bank of Scotland to their clients at the start of the year was: sell (mostly) everything. And by the middle of February it seemed well-founded, as markets slumped to levels not seen since July 2012 amid panic selling and warnings of a new financial crisis.
The FTSE 100 officially entered bear-market territory - a 20% decline from the peak it reached in April last year - as did France's CAC, the German Dax, the Shanghai Composite and Japan's Nikkei. US markets avoided this fate only because the American economy seemed to be the best placed to weather any financial squalls.
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