World stock markets mostly fell sharply Wednesday, with investors showing new fears about China’s weakening economy and North Korea’s claim to have tested a hydrogen bomb.
Major U.S. stock indexes were down about 1 percent at midday in New York, while European markets ended down about the same. Japanese and Hong Kong indexes shed 1 percent, although the Shanghai exchange advanced 2.3 percent, recovering part of its nearly 7 percent plunge earlier in the week.
The first week of trading in the new year has shown market volatility with widespread swings in stock prices. But concerns about the Chinese economy, the world’s second largest after the United States, has been the key consideration pushing stock prices lower.
China’s central bank set the level of its currency, the yuan, at an unexpectedly low level Wednesday, to a new five-year low. Analysts said this indicates Beijing is worried about its economic growth and declining stock prices.
The benchmark price of Brent crude oil dropped Wednesday below $35 a barrel for the first time since 2004. The glut of oil on the world market is expected to keep the price low throughout 2016.
