Attempted rebound in European stocks quickly fizzled out on Monday after markets around the world and oil prices slumped to multi-year lows amid persistent worries over global growth, Yahoo reported. Middle Eastern stocks plunged overnight, catching up with the fall across global bourses on Friday. With US markets closed for the Martin Luther King Day holiday, equity bulls were relying on Europe to fight back from the worst ever start to a year. The main European indices have lost as much as 10% in just two weeks. Monday saw early gains for the FTSEuroFirst 300 index of leading shares but it had given up most of them by midday to trade up just 0.1% higher. Britain’s FTSE 100 and France’s CAC 40 were flat, while Germany’s DAX was down 0.2%. Japanese stocks fell amid continued unease over China’s economic outlook and the slide in crude oil prices to lows not seen since 2003. The Nikkei share average fell 1.1% to 16,955.57, its lowest close in a year.
