Investors face another rocky week as major sharemarkets deal with continuing gloomy data coming out of the United States.
This week, Wall Street heads into a key corporate earnings season with sentiment hammered amid a record surge in energy costs that has dampened prospects for an economic recovery.
In a holiday-shortened week, the Dow Jones industrial average shed 0.51% to 11,288.54 ahead of the July 4 Independence Day holiday.
The blue-chip index was pounded in June with a 10.2% loss.
The tech-dominated Nasdaq lost 3.04% for the week to 2245.38 while the broad-market Standard and Poor's 500 index fell 1.2% to 1262.90.
The Dow and Nasdaq are now firmly in "bear market" territory, down more than 20% from their highs from last October, with the S&P not far off.
While many analysts say the market is oversold due to poor sentiment, few see any catalysts that could spark a quick rebound.
The first test comes this week with quarterly results from General Electric, seen as a barometer of the overall economy, and key manufacturers including Alcoa and chipmaker Intel.
In the United Kingdom, investors will this week look to the Bank of England for some sign the economy is turning.
The London FTSE 100 index lost 2.12% from a week ago to finish at 5412.80 on Friday.
The UK central bank makes its statement on the official cash rate on Thursday. Analysts expect borrowing costs to be kept at 5% as the bank seeks to stem rising inflation - which last month was 3.3%.
With few UK companies set to report financial results, attention will also turn to several indicators such as industrial production for May, which is out tomorrow.
The NZX-50 index is likely to drift today, waiting for a lead from overseas.
The index finished down 1.2% for the week, but was down 12% for June.
Marc Pado, analyst at Cantor Fitzgerald, said the US market would be on edge from results later in the month from the banking sector, which had been "whipsawed" by the national housing meltdown and the related credit squeeze.
"Until we get those banks out of the way, the market isn't going to pay too much attention to other companies' earnings.
"It really needs to see where we stand with the credit crisis first and then they'll focus on the industrials, the retailers, the technology firms."
But even with positive corporate news, Mr Pado said the leap in oil prices could prevent any rally from taking hold.
When crude prices climbed and made records every day, the market could not focus on the economic news or anything else, he said.
Bonds got a lift from the stock market's troubles.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury bond fell to 3.973% from 3.99% a week earlier and that on the 30-year bond eased to 4.531% from 4.537%.
Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions.
