China's benchmark stock index plummets 8 percent, spooking global markets


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China's benchmark Shanghai Composite Index dropped 8.5 percent in early Monday trading, wiping out the year's gains, as a string of weak economic data and Beijing's recent currency devaluations sent investors scrambling to safer assets. Other bourses in the region followed suit, with benchmark indexes from Hong Kong to Australia shedding more than 2 percent.
"Markets are panicking," said analyst Takako Masai at Shinsei Bank in Tokyo. "Things are starting look like the Asian financial crisis in the late 1990s. Speculators are selling assets that seem the most vulnerable." China is the world's No. 2 economy, and investors are betting that its economic slowdown is worse than official government data indicates. With Monday's losses, the Shanghai Composite is down about 37 percent from mid-June.
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Peter Weber is a senior editor at TheWeek.com, and has handled the editorial night shift since the website launched in 2008. A graduate of Northwestern University, Peter has worked at Facts on File and The New York Times Magazine. He speaks Spanish and Italian and plays bass and rhythm cello in an Austin rock band. Follow him on Twitter.
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