STOCKS fell around the globe, giving the MSCI World Index a 20 percent bear-market decline from its October record, as oil reached US$147 a barrel and concern deepened that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are short of capital.
The MSCI World, which tracks 1,742 companies in 23 developed markets, lost 1.06 percent to 1,345.47 last Friday. The index, whose 12-percent tumble during the first half of the year was the steepest since 1982, shrank 20.3 percent since its October 31 high.
The UK last Friday became the eighth of the world's 10 biggest equity markets to enter a bear market since November.
"It's tough right now to find a safe haven," said Kate Schapiro, who oversees US$250 million in equities at Sentinel Asset Management in San Francisco. "Tolerance for risk and earnings estimates are still coming down. It all seems rather gloom and doom."
Stocks in the United States, Japan, China, France, Germany and Australia have retreated more than 20 percent from their peaks because of record commodity prices and more than US$400 billion in write-downs from financial companies since the start of last year.
The Standard & Poor's 500 Index last week extended its decline from an October record to 21 percent and was heading for its sixth straight weekly slump, Bloomberg News said.
American financial companies have led the MSCI World into a bear market as rising joblessness and falling home values caused US homeowners to default on their mortgages.
Wachovia Corp, Fannie Mae and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc plunged more than 70 percent this year, driving banks, brokerages and insurance companies in the MSCI World to a 28 percent drop.