2nd biggest drop this year for US shares

Published:  22 Jun at 3 PM

Wall Street shares finished with a 2 percent drop after manufacturing figures in Europe, China and the US indicated a weakening global economy.

Prices for petroleum were also affected, with Brent crude oil and US light crude both down by over 3.5 percent. The sad economic news came after a downgrade of American economic growth forecasts last Wednesday.

According to the Federal Reserve, growth will likely be between 1.9 - 2.4 percent, which is 0.5 percentage points less than before. Reports of weakening growth started early on Thursday after an HSBC report announced that the Chinese factory sector declined for the eighth consecutive month to its lowest state since early 2009.

Soon after, a report on purchasing managers' activities came out, suggesting that the eurozone's private sector downturn was becoming well-established.

June has been the fifth month in a row where activity dropped. Figures also indicated a weakening in the US labour and housing markets.

In addition to this, the Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank announced that its local manufacturing activity had fallen from -5.8 to -16.6, the lowest point in 12 months. Finishing with a loss of 1.96 percent on the day, a fall of 250.82 points to 12,573.57, was the Dow Jones average.