``All the lights are flashing red,'' said Nariman Behravesh, chief economist at Global Insight Inc. in Lexington, Massachusetts, in an interview with Bloomberg Television. ``We're in a recession. I don't think there is any doubt about it at this point.''
"The dollar is going down again and hedgers are buying commodities and this is all adding fuel to the fire," said Mark Waggoner, president of Excel Futures.
"Even on the top line, IBM has advantages that should help it to sidestep a weak demand environment," Goldman Sachs analyst David Bailey, who has a "buy" rating on IBM stock, said in an investor note after the briefing.
Managing Director V.K. Viswanathan said."While Bosch has grown sales by 13 percent, this growth was below our expectations due to this slowdown".
Banks such as Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group also took a beating after U.S. mortgage lender Thornburg Mortgage Inc said it failed to meet a $28 million margin call, the latest victim of the global credit crisis.
"We now have more pessimists in the market in terms of whether the U.S. will tip into a recession or it will be just a temporary slowdown," predicting the Nikkei could fall to the 11,000-12,000 level.
Travel firm Thomas Cook said on Friday it was spending up to 249 million euros ($384 million) on acquisitions in India and the Middle East as part of a drive to expand in fast-growing emerging markets.
Consolidated Construction Consortium Ltd said on Friday it has received orders worth 1.75 billion rupees.
State-run Bank of Baroda expects its loan growth to exceed 20 percent in 2007/08 and is aiming 20 percent to 24 percent growth in lending over the next three years, a top official said on Friday
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