Stock markets around the world have recently fallen sharply as a result of the financial crisis and fears of a world recession.
In spite of short-lived rebounds the downward trend continues with some shares plummeting to new lows.
There is no shortage of vocabulary and idiomatic expressions to describe bear markets: to/a decline; to/a decrease; to/a tumble; to/a fall; to/a plunge; to be down; to/a fall; to/a drop, among other terms can all be employed to describe downward movements, not only in stocks and shares, but also in profits, consumer confidence, sales, temperatures, production, (un)employment, crime and so on.
The degree or speed of the fall can be specified by using the following adjectives/adverbs* : slight/slightly (small); steady/steadily (regular); sharp/sharply or steep/steeply (large) and dramatic/dramatically.
*These can equally be used to refer to upward trends
It remains to be seen how much further the markets will fall. Indeed, it seems that the bottom has fallen out of the markets, with some companies' shares almost worthless. Investors are hoping that the markets will soon bottom out, although few expect a recovery (vb. to recover) in the near future.
