Black Monday for the global stock markets. Gold hits the record high of more than $1,700

A red wave swept across the stock markets worldwide in the first trading day after the decision of the largest rating agency Standard and Poor's to downgrade the US credit rating from AAA to AA +. The reaction of investors was expected due to the fear of a new recession. The assurances for coordinated intervention on the side of the G20, G7 and central banks did not help as well.

The "tsunami" of sales hit Asia first, while the largest loss was reported by the Chinese stocks. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index dropped 4% and the index of the Shanghai Stock Exchange declined by as much as 3.7%. During the day, red dominated the European financial markets as well. FTSEurofirst 300 index slumped by 0.4 %; The leading DAX index at the Frankfurt Stock Exchange DAX lost 1.3 %, while the Paris CAC40 stock index fell by 1%. London's FTSE-100 reported a decline of 0.78%.

The decision of the Governing Council of the European Central Bank to start purchasing Spanish and Italian bonds was a gulp of fresh air for investors, but optimism did not last long. It affected mostly the stock markets of Madrid and Rome. The index of the Athens Stock Exchange ASE tumbled down by 5.1%. The red colour was dominating at the Bulgarian Stock Exchange, where the four indices closed on a negative territory. The Romanian stock market also suffered a severe blow since its main index BET plunged by 8.6%, while the Czech PSE slumped by 4.8%. The Croatian Crobex reported a decline of 5.1%. The Russian RTS index plummeted by over 5% below 1,700 points for the first time since December 2010.

Wall Street also followed the expected downward trend and the decline of the key indices was within 2%. In fact, Dow Jones Indust. dropped by 1.93%, S&P 500 lost 1.63% and the Nasdaq Composite index was down by 3.28%.

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