Shares plunged on Wall Street and the dollar fell sharply tonight after an increase in jobless claims and weak signals from industry prompted fears that the US is heading for a double-dip recession.
The Dow Jones index fell 200 points at one stage in morning trading in New York after the US labour department reported that 500,000 new claims for unemployment benefit were filed in the week ending 14 August – an increase of 12,000 on the previous week and the highest figure for nine months.
The already gloomy mood was compounded when the Philadelphia Fed, one of the Federal Reserve's 12 regional reserve banks, published its monthly health check on manufacturing in America's mid-Atlantic region. The survey, seen by Wall Street as a barometer of US industrial conditions, showed activity had contracted unexpectedly for the first time since July 2009.
President Barack Obama called on Congress to pass a bill providing support for small businesses, but Wall Street believes the threat to the world's biggest economy will also require action by the Federal Reserve to expand the money supply through its quantitative easing programme. James Bullard, president of the St Louis Fed, said tonight that the central bank would need to step up its purchases of bonds should the threat of deflation intensify.
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A Chinese man who trained monkeys martial arts to entertain shoppers was shocked when they turned the tables on him.
Lo Wung's taekwondo monkeys have become a regular feature outside a shopping centre in Enshi, Hubei province, where they were trained to show off their martial arts skills on each other.
But one quick-thinking monkey saw his chance when Lo slipped - and caught him with a perfect flying kung fu kick to the head. The rest then joined in the affray.
Hu Luang, 32, who caught the incident on camera, said: "I saw one punch him in the eye - he grabbed another by the ear and it responded by grabbing his nose.
"They were leaping and jumping all over the place - it was better than a Bruce Lee film."
At one point the monkey trainer grabbed a staff to hit the monkeys, only to find himself facing a stick-brandishing monkey that cracked him over the head.
Lo only managed to get the monkeys under control by tangling them up in the rope that had been used to stop them running off.
