RPT-Fed slashes rates by half point in global ease

(Repeats to additional customers)

NEW YORK, Oct 8 (Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Reserve cut interest rates by a half percentage point to 1.5 percent on Wednesday, joining other central banks in a coordinated effort to soothe ailing financial markets.

Stock markets around the world continued to fall overnight, raising fears that an apparently intractable credit crisis could be getting worse. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke had already hinted at a rate cut in a speech on Tuesday.

"The recent intensification of the financial crisis has augmented the downside risks to growth," the Fed said in a statement. (Reporting by Pedro Nicolaci da Costa; Editing by Kenneth Barry)