TORONTO — Stock markets in Asia and Europe are extending the desperation which took New York’s Dow Jones industrial average down 679 points yesterday to a five-year low and left Toronto’s S&P/TSX index with a loss of 456 points at its weakest level since May 2005.

Wall Street stock index futures point to further deep losses, after Japan’s Nikkei index closed today with a 9.6 per cent rout, losing 881.06 points to 8,276.43.

The main Asia-Pacific indexes were down 8.2 per cent on the day in Australia, 7.2 per cent in Hong Kong and 3.6 per cent in Shanghai.

The FTSE 100 index slumped 7.1 per cent in afternoon trading in London, while the German DAX was down 9.5 per cent and the Paris CAC-40 fell 8.7 per cent.

Crude oil slid $3.86 to US$82.73 on the New York Mercantile Exchange after going as low as $81.13 overnight as fears of a global recession deepened.

Gold gained $34.70 to US$921.20 an ounce, pushed up by panicky investors seeking a safe store of value.

In Ottawa, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty announced new support for the financial system this morning, saying he won’t allow Canada to be dragged down by instability from outside the country.

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. now stands on guard to buy as much as $25 billion worth of debts from Canadian financial institutions.

In the midst of the deepening economic gloom, Statistics Canada reported this morning that the country generated a record number of new jobs last month.

But the Canadian dollar continued its disorderly retreat, falling 1.38 cents to 85.90 cents US after losing 1.78 cents yesterday.

The 107,000 jobs added in September far outpaced the 12,500 expected by economists. But almost all of the growth — 97,000 jobs — was in part-time work.

And the unemployment rate held steady at 6.1 per cent as the growth in jobs was offset by an increase in the number of people looking for work.

Yesterday’s close for the Dow Jones industrials at 8,579.19 came exactly one year after its record high, and left the U.S. blue-chip benchmark down almost 40 per cent from its peak.

Sentiment seemed little affected by this morning’s report from General Electric, whose third-quarter earnings were in line with downwardly revised expectations.

GE had a profit of US$4.5 billion, down 12 per cent from a year earlier — pulled lower by its financial-services segment — as revenue rose 11 per cent to $47.2 billion.

The global industrial, finance and media conglomerate stressed that its board has resolved to maintain the dividend at $1.24 per share at least through next year.

CEO Jeff Imelda said the infrastructure and media businesses “continued to see signs of strength,” with a 31 per cent profit increase in energy infrastructure and a 10 per cent rise at NBC Universal.

Overseas markets slumped amid growing anxiety that central bankers and politicians have lost control, as credit markets remained seized up despite massive efforts to ease lending between banks.

Trading was suspended at various times on bourses in Austria, Russia, Iceland, Romania and Ukraine. Milan suspended dealing in nearly half of its stocks because of steep losses. And the Indonesian stock market was shut down indefinitely.

The London Interbank Offered Rate, or Libor, for three-month borrowing in US dollars rose another 0.07 per cent to 4.82 per cent. That’s two percentage points higher than a month ago in spite of this week’s co-ordinated half-point rate cut by the U.S. Federal Reserve, the Bank of Canada and other central banks.

“Policy actions are clearly going over the heads of the markets,” commented Howard Wheeldon, senior strategist at BGC Partners in London.

“This is capitulation in a way.”

Tokyo’s decline — the steepest since the October 1987 crash — left the Nikkei at its weakest close since May 2003, down by almost one-quarter on the week.

Finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of Seven industrialized nations meet today in Washington to address the financial meltdown, and President George W. Bush is set to make an address to the American people.