Perilous
Times
Some $4 trillion wiped off world stocks in 2 weeks
LONDON (Reuters) - Some $4 trillion has been wiped off the value
of world stocks this month on concerns the euro zone debt crisis
is spreading to Italy and Spain and hurting Europe's banking
system, and the global economy is falling into recession.
The sum wiped off the MSCI All-Country World Index .MIWD00000PUS -
about one seventh of its value - is almost equivalent to the size
of combined economies of Italy, Spain, Portugal, Ireland and
Greece.
The sell-off this week knocked nearly $1.6 trillion off the market
capitalization of the global benchmark after last week's $2.5
trillion loss.
The valuation of the benchmark is currently $24.84 trillion.
The U.S. S&P 500 .SPX alone has lost more than $710 billion
this week after losing $850 billion the previous week, while
European shares measured by the MSCI Europe .MSCIEU have lost
almost $500 billion this week.
(Reporting by Dominic Lau; Editing by David Cowell)