RENEE MONTAGNE, host: NPR's business news starts with another sell off on global markets. Or maybe it just the same sell off continued for yet another day. Many investors are now watching Washington to see if financial leaders meeting here today can do anything to relieve the financial crisis. An in the meantime the Dow Jones industrial average has been swinging wildly from the start. It is still trading well below its levels of some months ago in fact its trading below 8500. European share prices have also stumbled as did every stock market in Asia. Japan's Nikkei Index lost nearly 10 percent of its value. In the United States investors are bailing out mutual funds in record numbers. They're fleeing not only stock funds but also bond funds.
Japan's Nikkei index lost nearly 10 percent Friday, following a plunge in U.S. stock prices. This week alone, the Japanese index has lost nearly 25 percent of its value. Other Asian stock markets also dropped Friday. In Europe, stock prices tumbled as the markets opened.