European stock markets have plunged again as new figures from China added to fears about the prospects for the world economy.
Stock markets had fallen in value overnight following yesterday's big falls in New York where Wall Street saw its worst trading day in almost three years.
The Hang Seng fell by 6% at one point overnight, while Tokyo's Nikkei index fell 4%.
Both recovered some of those losses towards the close.
Main Developments:
European shares rallied from earlier falls
US stocks opened higher
Tokyo loses 1.7% to close at five-month low
US Federal Reserve meeting
Oil prices fall in New York and London
Gold hits record high
2122 US stocks rebounded strongly, with the Dow jumping nearly 4% after plummeting yesterday on the shock of Standard & Poor's downgrade of the US credit rating.
The Dow Jones added 429.92 points, or 3.98%, to 11,239.77. The S&P 500 climbed 53.07 points (4.74%), at 1,172.53, while the Nasdaq jumped 124.83 points (5.29%) at 2,482.52.
1923 The Federal Reserve said has said it will keep its hefty monetary policy stimulus for at least another two years.
Meeting as worries grew of a new recession, the Fed's policy board said growth so far this year had been 'considerably slower' than expected.
It maintained its key interest rate at the ultra-low level of 0-0.25 percent and vowed to keep 'exceptionally low' rates 'at least through mid-2013.'
1736 In Dublin, the ISEQ finished up 2.95% to stand at 2,466 points.
1648 London's FTSE has closed up 1.89%, Paris's Cac rose 1.63%, while the Dax in Frankfurt slipped 0.2%.
Back home the Dublin market is up 2.8% this evening.
1559 Almost all of the major stock markets are now in positive territory with the Dow Jones up 1.7% and the Nasdaq up 2.9%.
The FTSE has gained 0.9%, the Cac in Paris is up 0.7% while Dublin's Iseq is up 2.2%.
Germany's Dax is bucking the trend however, down 0.8%.
1525 China's Premier Wen Jiabao urged nations to work together to stabilise turbulent financial markets.
He alluded to debt problems in the US and Europe and called on 'relevant' countries to implement responsible monetary policies and rein in fiscal deficits.
In a sign that China may soften its policy stance in the face of mounting uncertainties, the premier toned down his inflation rhetoric by omitting Beijing's usual refrain that fighting inflation would be a priority.
Instead, he only said Beijing should 'try its best to curb price rises' and he noted China's economic policies are showing positive results.
1524 Egypt's stock exchange was down for a third day in a row amid worries for the global economy.
The Borsa closed at 4.75%, down after intense trading by foreign and local investors.
‘The US credit downgrade helped deepening negativity in the market, especially after the steep decline in global markets,’ said market analyst Walid Abdeen.
The Borsa has fallen by 11% since the start of the week, on top of losing 33% of its value since a revolt ousted president Hosni Mubarak in February.
1510 Gold hit a record high today in its biggest three-day rally since the depths of the financial crisis in 2008.
Though spot prices retreated from highs as stock markets opened higher in the US, they remained up 1.4% on the day at $1,739.60 an ounce at 1342GMT, having earlier peaked at $1,778.29.
1508 Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has said his government is ready to pump liquidity into the Russian market after a US debt downgrade hit domestic stocks and the rouble.
'We in Russia believe that we must keep careful track of liquidity', news agencies quoted Mr Putin as saying.
'The finance ministry and the central bank are monitoring the situation and if necessary will use various channels to add liquidity to the market.'
1506 Greek stocks bounced back after suffering heavy losses at early trading, with the main index showing a gain of 1.2% to 1,010.20 points at around 1324GMT.
1441 Socialist MEPs have called for the European Parliament's economic committee to be recalled for an urgent meeting on the eurozone crisis.
They want ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet, President of the Eurogroup Jean-Claude Junker and EU Economics Commissioner Olli Rehn to face questions on the threat to the single currency.
Senior socialists say European governments' response to the crisis has been too little too late, and have called for the introduction of eurobonds in response to the eurozone sovereign debt crisis.
1437 Wall Street markets opened higher this afternoon, regaining some ground after last night's huge losses.
The Dow Jones was up 1% in the first few minutes, while the Nasdaq gained 2%.
1434 Dow opens up 1.0%.
1315 Watch the New York Stock Exchange Opening Bell live from 2.29pm.
1252 Investors are looking ahead to the US Federal Reserve meeting later today in the hope the US central bank could come up with some fresh cash to boost the US economy under its policy known as quantitative easing (QE). However, many were sceptical it has any firepower left with which to stem the tide.
1251 Most European stock markets were lower again this lunchtime in volatile trading.
After heavy falls earlier in the morning, London's FTSE was down 0.6% and Frankfurt's DAX was 1.5% lower.
The Paris market recovered to be just over 1% ahead by lunchtime, while Dublin's ISEQ was also up.
1157 India's BSE Sensex closed down 0.78%, extending the losing streak to the sixth consecutive session.
1148 The OPEC group of petroleum exporting countries has lowered its forecast for 2011 and 2012 crude oil demand.
In its monthly report, the cartel said demand for crude was expected to reach 88.14 million barrels per day in 2011, down from a previous estimate of 88.18.
For 2012, it put the figure at 89.44 mbd, down from 89.50.
1039 Greek stocks fell back, with the main index showing a loss of 3.9% to 959.32.
The Athens stock exchange opened in the green but could not hold on to the gains for more than five minutes before spiralling down.
1021 German stocks have plunged on dogged fears that slowing growth and the eurozone debt crisis will cause another recession.
The DAX showed a loss of 4.96% to 5,629.44.
Yesterday, the index of German blue-chips closed with a loss of 5.02% but it briefly nudged into positive territory early this morning before reversing direction in lock-step with other major European markets.
1014 ECB chief Jean-Claude Trichet has called on European governments, notably Italy and Spain, to ‘do their duty’ in reducing their public deficits and stabilising their finances.
‘We expect governments to do what we consider to be their work, their duty,’ Mr Trichet told Europe 1.
‘We have been extremely clear with the Italian government over recent days in asking for a number of decisions to be taken, which have been taken, and to speed up in particular a return to a normal budgetary situation,’ he said.
‘We have asked the same thing of the Spanish government.
‘We have asked European governments as a whole, 17 of them, to speed up the decisions taken on 21 July during a eurozone meeting.’
0949 Chinese inflation rate rose in July to its highest level in more than three years, as the government struggles to rein in soaring food costs.
The country's consumer price index rose 6.5% last month compared to a year earlier, the highest level since June 2008 when it reached 7.1%.
The July reading is likely to fuel concern among policymakers anxious about inflation's potential to trigger social unrest, and about instability in the Chinese economy at a time of renewed global financial peril.
0903 German stocks fell back in choppy early trade on fears that slowing growth and the eurozone debt crisis will cause another recession.
The DAX showed a loss of 1.5% to 5,834.59.
0900 Spanish shares slipped into the red, erasing early gains after a global stock market sell-off on concerns over global economic growth and sovereign debt.
The IBEX of leading shares was down 1.41% at 8,340.2 points. It had jumped more than 2% in opening trade but quickly ran out of steam.
0838 Borrowing costs for Spain and Italy have continued to ease on bond markets after the European Central Bank intervened in the market as part of efforts to tame the euro zone debt crisis.
The yield, or interest rate, on 10-year Italian bonds fell to 5.18%, while the Spanish rate dropped to just over 5%.
Ireland's 10-year bond yield is just under 10.1%.
ECB president Jean-Claude Trichet told French radio this morning that the bank was actively buying bonds on the market and planned to continue doing so.
0828 Milan stocks jump 1.83% at open.
0816 Spanish shares have jumped 1.94% in opening trade as government bonds strengthened.
In the first eight minutes of trade, the Madrid market's IBEX-35 index of leading shares climbed 1.94% to 8,623.3 points despite major losses overnight on Wall Street and in Asia.
0813 Spanish and Italian ten-year bond yields have eased sharply.
0812 German stocks slipped at the opening of trade, with the DAX index of leading shares losing 0.46% to 5,896.14 points.
Investors quickly changed track however and the DAX showed a small gain as other European markets proved more resilient.
0800 New York crude oil sank below $80 in Asian trade and its London counterpart briefly dropped under $100 as markets reeled from the US credit downgrade by Standard & Poor's.
New York crude for delivery in September shed $2.35, or 2.89%, to $78.96 per barrel, a level it has not seen since 30 September 2010.
Oil prices had plunged $5.60, or 6.89%, to a low of $75.71 in intra-day trade before clawing back some ground.
London crude slipped $1.82, or 1.75%, to $101.92. It had earlier sunk below $100, a level the index has not breached since 8 February.
Crude prices went into freefall after the unprecedented downgrade Friday of the US' long-term sovereign debt rating from AAA to AA+.
0757 Japanese shares ended down 1.68% at their lowest in nearly five months, although early losses narrowed ahead of a policy board meeting by the US Federal Reserve later in the day.
The Nikkei-225 index of the Tokyo Stock Exchange, which lost more than 4% in early trade, closed down 153.08 points at 8,944.48.
It was the benchmark index's lowest close since 15 March, days after the earthquake and tsunami that tore into northeast Japan.
0750 German exports slumped in June on a monthly basis, in another sign of slowing global trade.
German exports declined by 1.2%, preliminary adjusted data released by the Destatis office showed, to €88.5bn following a revised monthly gain of 4.4% in May.
Imports were slightly higher at €77bn, and Destatis said the country's adjusted trade surplus fell to €11.5bn from €12.9bn in May.
0745 Australian stocks have staged a stunning turnaround, bouncing from a more than 5.5% slump to end in the black on hopes the US Federal Reserve may outline plans for a new stimulus package.
The market plunged sharply at the open in reaction to carnage overnight linked to the US debt downgrade by Standard & Poor's in the United States, and continued to fall as fear took hold.
But by mid-afternoon the losses had been reversed with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 closing 1.2% higher at 4,034.8.
