Gallows humour the only cheer after Dow's worst-ever opening week

IF THE stock market continues the year as it began, the Dow Jones Industrial Average would end up with a sub-zero value.

It was the worst opening week for the blue-chip Dow in its 120-year history, with a loss of 6 per cent as traders in the US reacted to a stock market crash in Shanghai as if it was a harbinger of recession in China and, ultimately, the world. Those fears eclipsed all other market influences, even a surprisingly strong December jobs report.

The Standard & Poor's 500 finished the week down by almost 5 per cent. The Dow, the Nasdaq Composite and the small-cap Russell 2000 are now all in correction territory, more than 10 per cent below their record highs last year. Moreover, the downward momentum is so strong that a rebound this week is unlikely.