World markets down, Bank of Japan cuts rates

China's economy loses steam

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(CNN) -- European markets deepened their losses Friday, taking their cues from a slumping Wall Street and news of a weakening economy in Japan.

London, Paris and Frankfurt were all down about 2% in late-morning trading.

Tokyo stocks closed lower Friday even as the Bank of Japan cut a key interest rate in an attempt to boost the nation's economic fortunes.

The Bank of Japan painted a pessimistic picture for the nation's economy.

"Financial conditions have deteriorated sharply on the whole," a BOJ statement said. "Under these circumstances, economic conditions have been deteriorating and are likely to increase in severity for the immediate future."

Japan's Nikkei average briefly rallied after the announcement, but then closed down 0.9 percent after the BOJ lowered its overnight loan rate from 0.3 percent to 0.1 percent.

Elsewhere across Asia, stocks were mixed. Australia's All Ordinaries index gained 0.7% and the Shanghai composite index picked up 0.1%. In Seoul, the KOSPI index closed up 0.4% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng index slipped 2.4%.

On Wall Street Thursday, a selloff accelerated in the last hour of a volatile session as traders squared up positions for a handful of options expiring Friday, known as "quadruple witching."

The Dow Jones industrial average ended down 219 points, or 2.5%. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 19 points, or 2.1%, and the Nasdaq composite shed 27 points, or 1.7%. All three indexes seesawed in early going.

The market is typically more volatile ahead of "quadruple witching," when equity options, stock index futures, stock options and single-stock futures all expire on the same day. There are four such Fridays in the year, and they tend to be preceded by increased market volatility.

"Most of the action around that occurs the day before," said Fred Dickson, chief market strategist at D.A. Davidson & Co. "What we are seeing at the end of the day is an option and futures selloff related to tomorrow's expiration."

Investors also focused on the recession, which has delivered a slew of sour economic reports and has chipped away at global demand for oil.

A torrent of bad news that had been ignored in the previous session came back to haunt the markets in the afternoon session. "We have had a market that has really, up until yesterday, been pretty resilient in the face of negative news," said Art Hogan, chief market analyst at Jefferies & Co. "The market has been ignoring a lot of bad news and it is not ignoring it today."

With the holiday week approaching, trading has also slowed. "Volume is fairly low," said James Shelton, chief investment officer at Kanaly Trust Company. "The markets are getting ready for the holidays."