Stocks jolted by Wall Street's plunges

IT'S been a volatile week for world equity markets, starting with Wall Street where traders appear to be transitioning from a "bad news is good news'' market to one where bad news really is bad news.

Thursday's 300-plus-point plunge in the Dow Jones Industrial Average was the third triple-digit loss or gain for the week that came after the release of significant economic or interest rate data, the market there appearing to be making up for lost time as far as trading volatility is concerned.

On Tuesday, the US market plunged because the International Monetary Fund downgraded its global growth forecasts; on Wednesday prices rebounded sharply because the minutes of the US Federal Reserve's latest Open Market Committee mee…