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Stock markets around the world took a nosedive Thursday, and the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange responded in kind: The blue-chip Tel Aviv-25 index fell by 2.8% and the broader TA-100 by 3.1%. But while Tel Aviv's declines were modest compared to those of Asian and European markets, the ongoing global financial crisis is sparking local fears of a rise in unemployment in the coming months: Thursday, the National Insurance Institute predicted that the ranks of Israel's jobless would swell by some 4,000 people by the end of the year. Surprisingly, Wall Street bucked the worldwide trend Thursday, as investors took advantage of the low prices to snap up potential bargains. The Dow Jones industrials rose by 401.35 points, or 4.68 percent, to 8,979.26, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 38.55 points, or 4.25 percent, to 946.39, and the Nasdaq composite index rose 89.38 points, or 5.49 percent, to 1,717.71. In contrast, Asian and European markets were hammered: Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index lost 4.8 percent; Japan's Nikkei index dropped 11.41 percent; Britain's FTSE 100 fell 5.65 percent; Germany's DAX index fell 4.91 percent; and France's CAC-40 fell 5.92 percent.Outside the markets, government agencies, non-profit organizations and businesses in Israel were all busy bracing for the coming storm. NII Director General Esther Dominisini said she is trying to prepare her organization to cope with an expected surge in unemployment. "There's no doubt that unemployment will rear its head," she said. "The number of people in need of assistance will grow." In particular, Dominisini expects a wave of dismissals in the banking and construction industries, as these two sectors have thus far been hit particularly hard by the global crisis. Currently, the unemployment rate stands at about 6 percent, down from a peak of 11.2 percent in 2003. But the Government Employment Service reported last month that after three years of steady declines, the number of job-seekers registering at its offices had risen by about 0.7 percent a month in each of the previous six months, bringing the total number of registered job-seekers to 194,000 at the end of July. If that pace continues, the service said, some 4,000 people will be added to the jobless rolls by the end of the year. The number of people receiving unemployment benefits has also grown this year, it noted, from 44,500 in February to 48,000 in August...To read more go to:
As in the days of Noah....
