Investors flee emerging markets

Every day I look for the stock market to make a turn for the better. But instead of advancing forward, I'm forced to see the tumbling of the markets in the United States and abroad.

While I do believe it will take quite awhile before the stock market get the steam it once had, progress is being made.

Right now I have turned my attention on the markets overseas, and things are not pretty today for them. The stocks are dropping in value like I have never seen. For the last few months, the stocks have been turning downward.

I looked for China's stock market to rebound after the Olympics. But never happen, instead fell more than 10%. where do we go from here? Only time will tell.

Investor's flight from emerging markets over the past few weeks has accelerated this week, pushing the U.S. dollar to new heights, among other things as money is both repatriated from overseas and seeks relative safety in U.S. fixed income.

The dollar hit a two-year high against a basket of currencies with the dollar index up 0.2 percent to 85.6 after hitting a two-year peak above 86.

A flight from emerging market debt and stocks helped push the dollar to a two-year high against major currencies on Thursday as fears built about a global recession.

Investors were also focusing on major company earnings reports, fearful that the worst financial crisis in 80 years and the deteriorating global economy could combine to batter corporate profits.

European shares put in gains on the back of some positive results, but Asian shares fell to four-year lows and emerging markets were again under the gun.

MSCI's main emerging market stock index was down 3.3 percent on the day, hitting a nearly four-year low after major losses on Wednesday.

Emerging market sovereign debt spreads blew out to more than 800 basis points over U.S. Treasury yields, a gap not seen since late 2002.

"There is now little argument that the world economy will experience a period of sub-par growth, and a recession in several advanced economies looks increasingly likely," Goldman Sachs said in a research note.

European shares staged a mild recovery in choppy trade, helped by surprisingly strong results from some heavyweights, which helped shake off the effects of falls on Wall Street and Asia.

Nestle, the world's biggest food group, reported a forecast-beating rise in nine-month sales. Agrochemicals and seeds group Syngenta also reported a strong rise in third-quarter sales.

In the United States, technology bellwether Microsoft will release quarterly results alongside drugmakers Eli Lilly and Bristol-Myers Squibb as well as Dow Chemical and mail and logistics group United Parcel Service.

Earlier, Japan's Nikkei average hit its lowest point since May 2003 before paring losses to end down 2.5 percent. It shed 213.71 points to 8,460.98 after earlier falling as low as 8,016.61, its lowest in nearly five and a half years.