Stocks in Europe and Asia retreated, sending the MSCI World Index lower for a ninth day, and U.S. stock futures fell as results at companies from Anglo American Plc to Bridgestone Corp. indicated the recession is deepening. Anglo American slid 8.3 percent after the mining company that controls the world’s largest platinum producer suspended its dividend as earnings slumped. Saint-Gobain, Europe’s biggest supplier of building materials, lost 12 percent after reporting a drop in profit and saying it plans on selling new shares. Bridgestone, the world’s largest tiremaker, fell 7.4 percent after saying profit will slide 71 percent this year. The MSCI World Index slid 1.1 percent to 781.55 at 8:08 a.m. in London. The gauge of 23 developed countries slid 11 percent in the past nine days as companies from Electricite de France SA to Diageo Plc posted disappointing results and U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner failed to convince investors that his plan to rescue U.S. banks will work. “We’re at the low point of the economic cycle and companies are trying to clean things up,” Vincent Juvyns, a strategist at ING Investment Management in Brussels, which oversees about $476 billion worldwide, said in a television interview. “Companies are trying to prepare for this time of uncertainty. We’ll see more and more capital increases across industries. We remain very cautious.” Asia, U.S. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index sank 2.3 percent today as Japan’s Topix Index fell to its lowest since January 1984. Standard & Poor’s 500 Index futures slid 1 percent. U.S. stocks dropped yesterday, sending the Dow Jones Industrial Average to a six-year low, as concern about rising credit-card defaults dragged financial shares to the lowest level since 1995. “This could be a rather damaging end to the week,” Matthew Buckland, a dealer at CMC Markets in London, wrote. “Investors are quite simply running out of short-term confidence with equities.” Saint-Gobain slid 12 percent to 24.68 euros. The company plans to sell 1.5 billion euros of new shares to shore up capital eroded by slowing construction and an antitrust fine. Net income dropped 7.3 percent to 1.38 billion euros last year and net debt increased 18 percent to 11.7 billion euros, the company said. The global economic crisis makes the 2010 targets set in 2007 “obsolete,” it said. Anglo American slid 8.3 percent to 1,134 pence after saying it will resume dividend payments “as soon as market conditions allow. Full-year underlying earnings dropped to $4.36 a share from $4.40 in 2007. Bridgestone sank 7.4 percent to 1,251 yen after saying net income will probably fall 71 percent to 3 billion yen ($32 million) this year as demand for new cars wanes.

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