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FINANCIAL TURMOIL

Big job losses shake investors

AFP , Washington
Massive US job losses in November and news that the US unemployment rate jumped to a 15-yearhigh of 6.7 percent rocked investor sentiment Friday and sent the price of oil plummeting.
The Labor Depart in e n t reported that the economy lost 533,000 jobs last month, far exceeding forecasts by some analysts for a loss of325,000.
European markets fell hard on the news, with the London FTSE 100 index plunging 2.56 percent, the CAC 40 in Paris shedding 4.46 percent while the Dax in Frankfurt lost 3.85 percent.
The price of crude oil in London slumped under 41 dollars a barrel to a four-year low as the shocking US job loss figures raised further fears about a drop in energy demand.
The Friday report had been preceded by a new round of job cuts by big US companies and news that US government unemployment aid had hit a 26-year high.
The news had dampened sentiment and undermined the impact of historic interest rate cuts in Britain and the eurozone.
Stock markets showed little enthusiasm for the rate cuts, which would normally be expected to boost sentiment as they reduce die cost of capital for companies and of credit for consumers.
Telecommunications giant AT&T said Thursday it was cutting 12,000 jobs, or about four percent of its workforce, beginning this month.
The chemical group DuPont said it would eliminate about 2,500 posts while mediaentertainment group Viacom is to cut its workforce by seven percent, or850jobs.
The Big Three US auto makers, General Motors, Ford and Chrysler, who are huge employers, pleaded for 34 billion dollars in taxpayer bailouts from Congress, warning that their collapse could cost up to three million jobs.
But there was no clear hint of sufficient support in Congress to approve such a rescue.
"There's a high, high possibility of a bankruptcy by one of the (Big Three) auto makers which still could take place even if they get some funding from the federal government in this round of discussions," said Gregg Stein of Standard & Poor's ratings agency.
There were also fresh indications the auto sector was ailing in Asia and Europe as well.
The cash-strapped Japanese group Honda announced its shock withdrawal from Formula One, ending an involvement that began in the 1960s and raising further fears over the sport's future.
In Europe German luxury auto manufacturer BMW said sales plunged by more than 25 percent in November from the same month last year.
The auto maker's plight mirrors that of the recession-hit German economy as a whole, with Deutsche Bank forecasting that momentum could contract by up to 4.0 percent next year, a much steeper fall than even the government's most pessimistic prediction.
The upper house of the German parliament on Friday approved a 32-billion-euro (41 -billion-dollar) stimulus package designed to spark 50 billion euros' worth of economic activity.
In Sweden, like Germany a member of the European Union, authorities proposed measures worth eight billion kronor (757 million euros, 966 million dollars) to shore up the labour market and construction industry.
In such an environment, unprecedented anti-recession action on Thursday by four European central banks had but little effect on investor spirits.
The European Central Bank cut the benchmark cost of borrowing by a record 0.75 percentage points to 2.50 percent shortly after the Bank of England returned British interest rates to levels last seen in 1951 with a full point reduction to 2.0 percent.
But on Wall Street Thursday the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 2.5 percent as investors stampeded toward the safety of US Treasury bonds.