Afternoon markets: Dow plunges after China raises rates

US shares fell in early trading on the back of interest rate concerns following the Chinese Central Bank's decision to increase its inter-bank rate for the first time in four months.

As at 15.00 GMT, the index was down 0.51%, or 53.81 points, to 10519. The downward plunge came despite a better-than-expected weekly unemployment report showing jobless claims rose by 1,000 to 434,000 last week. The biggest losses came from Alcoa down 3.65% while technology firm 3M fell 1.43% and Microsoft 1.14%. Bank of America is bucking the morning trend, up 1.16%, with Boeing (up 1.37%) and Travelers (up 0.58%) also amongst the morning's winners. Meanwhile, the FTSE remains in negative territory after briefly climbing into the red after the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) de...