2 December 2008 - AEST 8.30am - The US economy is officially in recession  -   European sharemarkets fell on Monday as traders took profits on the solid gains recorded for shares and commodities last week  -   With an hour of trade to go    the Dow Jones was lower by 395pts or 4.5pct while the S&P was lower by 5.3pct and the Nasdaq was lower by 85pts or 5.6pct  -   USD  made modest gains against Euro and commodity currencies but slumped against the Japanese yen  -   Crude oil prices fell sharply on Monday  -   Base metal priceswere generally lower  -   And the price of gold fell after traders booked profits on last weeks solid gains.