Halloween arrived early for investors this year. Gone is the euphoria of late September and early October, when stockmarkets surged to new records, shrugging off the credit crunch and the spectre of a slowing American economy.rnToday's mood is jittery, with investors easily spooked by credit-market phantoms and the shadows of weak corporate profits. October 19th, the 20th anniversary of the 1987 crash, was a particularly grim day, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling almost 370 points. This week markets shuddered again as Merrill Lynch, an investment bank, reported its first loss in six years thanks to a large write-down on assets relatedrnto low-quality subprime mortgages in America.
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