Global stock markets turned lower again on Friday, with Wall Street set to drop on the open, amid worries over corporate earnings, trade and the outlook for economic growth.
After gains on Wall Street on Thursday, sentiment soured after Amazon reported revenue figures that disappointed investors. Google parent company Alphabet’s earnings were also below expectations. That put pressure more widely on technology stocks. Shares in Amazon were down 9 percent in pre-market trading Friday. Futures markets that track overall stocks in the U.S. before the market opens indicated a drop early Friday.
More broadly, investors are worried that rising interest rates and disputes with trading partners could hurt economic growth and corporate profits. They will get more insight into how the American economy is doing later in the day when the U.S. government reports on economic growth during the third quarter.
“Any hope that Thursday’s recovery was anything more than a dead cat bounce was short-lived, as a couple of disappointing earnings reports sent investors running for the hills again on Friday,” Craig Erlam of OANDA said in a commentary. “The mentality of the markets right now means that any reasons to sell are being leaped on.”
In global markets, France’s CAC 40 shed 2.3 percent to 4,917, while Germany’s DAX slipped 2 percent to 11,089. Britain’s FTSE 100 shed 1.4 percent to 6,906. U.S. shares were also set to slide, with Dow futures falling 0.9 percent and S&P 500 futures dropping 1.1 percent.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 lost 0.4 percent to finish at 21,184.60, while South Korea’s Kospi dropped 1.8 percent to 2,027.15. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was flat at 5,665.20. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng sank 1.1 percent to 24,717.63 and the Shanghai Composite shed 0.2 percent to 2,598.85. Shares rose in Indonesia but fell in Taiwan and elsewhere in Southeast Asia.
Benchmark U.S. crude fell 91 cents to $66.42 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It gained 51 cents to $67.33 per barrel on Wednesday. Brent crude, the benchmark for international oil prices, dipped 80 cents to $76.09.
The dollar fell to 112.02 yen from 112.43 yen the day before. The euro fell to $1.1346 from $1.1375.
