NEW YORK (Reuters) – Stocks ended their worst quarter since the depths of the 2008 credit crisis, crippled by Europe’s debt debacle, a U.S. credit downgrade and a sputtering global economy.
A steep slide on Friday closed out a fifth month of losses as weak economic data from China sparked fears of a global economic slowdown while investment bank Morgan Stanley plummeted on concerns about its exposure to European banks.
The SP 500 index has lost more than 14 percent this quarter and over 7 percent in September alone. As of Thursday, Wall Street’s deep downturn in the third quarter wiped out $2.2 trillion of the Wiltshire 5000 index — the broadest measure of U.S. stocks.
“Why is the market so soft and so weak? Because ’08 is still fresh in people’s memories,” said Joseph Mazzella, a senior trader at Knight Capital in Jersey City, New Jersey.
Stocks have been battered by the threat
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