'Financial Times': Slowing U.S. Economy Brakes Europe
ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN ANCHOR: As we've noted, the slowing U.S. economy has had a braking effect on European market activity. The latest now from Philip Coggan of the "Financial Times." He's live in the "FT"'s London newsroom. And Philip, I understand we have some new data from the purchasing manager's index in Europe. What's the impact on the markets?</s>PHILIP COGGAN, "FINANCIAL TIMES": Well, Allan, it's another bad start to the day for European markets. As you say, that purchasing manager's index has come out. It shows that the level is 48.3. That's the weakest level for Europe since January 1999. In the United Kingdom, the figure is even worse, down at 46.4. Now, whereas the U.S. purchasing manager's index turned lower, below 50 last year, it's only been in the last couple of months that across Europe we've seen the figure fall below 50. And it clearly is a sign of more weakness in the manufacturing sector to come. New orders are falling fast. We also have figures out today from French consumer confidence, which has turned negative. And after French unemployment rose unexpectedly yesterday, it seems that the weakness of the German economy is now spreading to the other big economy in the Euro zone, France. We also, at the "FT," have done our bit to drag the market down today. We had a story in today's paper that KPM, the big Dutch telecom company, is planning a deeply discounted rates issue, to raise just over five billion euros, about $4 and a bit billion, to help it out of its financing difficulties. It has around 21 billion euros of debt, like many other telecom companies, and that has pushed the KPM share price down 20 percent and hit the telecom sector. Back to you, Allan.</s>CHERNOFF: Thank you, Philip Coggan, in London. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com