IMF chief warns emerging markets will be hit by extended period of low commodity prices * 1.1m UK cars caught up in Volkswagen scandal * Eurozone back in deflation due to cheaper oil * Markets suffer $11tn selloff in worst quarter since 2011 * Analyst: Emerging market gloom is deepening 4.57pm BST Markets have shrugged off warnings from IMF chief Christine Lagarde about the slowing world economy and rallied on the last day of a dismal quarter. Worries over Greece’s debt crisis gave way to new fears over China’s economic slowdown and market turmoil. Most European indices rose more than 2% today, while stocks on Wall Street leapt over 1%. 4.22pm BST “There was no sign of slowdown this afternoon, with a 200 point jump for the Dow Jones continuing the Western indices’ attempts to end this most awful of awful quarters with a bang instead of a more apt whimper,” says Connor Campbell, financial analyst at Spreadeax. Perhaps this evening’s comments from Janet Yellen will provide more insight into what the US markets want at the moment; when the Fed chair suggested last week that a rate-hike will most likely occur in 2015 the American indices surged on the signs of some much-needed clarity. It will be interesting, then, to see if the markets have a similar reaction if Yellen drops any newsworthy nuggets of information into her speech in St Louis. With the Dow continuing the end of quarter party, the European indices could maintain the muscular, if meaningless, growth that began this morning. The UK’s supermarket sector, buoyed by better-than-expected profit-promising comments from Sainsbury’s, only widened its gains as the day went on, whilst the commodity stocks continued to rebound from Monday’s mayhem. Continue reading...
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