The world stock exchanges retreated from record highs on Friday as investors continued to shy away from mega-cap growth stocks while a global cyber outage hit services ranging from airlines to banks and financial services, capping a turbulent week for markets.
A sell-off in technology stocks prompted by trade tensions between China and the United States, doubts over the fate of US President Joe Biden in the presidential race and the increasing chances of a victory by his rival Donald Trump, weak Chinese economic data and the lack of stimulus announcements at the third plenary session have cast a shadow over the global mood.
U.S. stock index futures fell after all three major stock indexes suffered losses on Thursday. European stocks were broadly lower, while Asian technology stocks struggled.
The MSCI world stock index fell to a two-week low, retreating further from a record high hit earlier this month.
On Friday, A global technology outage disrupted operations across multiple sectors, with airlines halting flights, some television networks ceasing broadcasting and everything from banking to healthcare affected by system issues.
LSEG Group said its Workspace news and data platform suffered an outage affecting user access worldwide. It later said technical issues with spot and forward exchange rates had been resolved.
Microsoft, Meanwhile, it fell 2.7% in pre-market trading following the cloud outage.
European stocks fell 0.5%, while MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan shed 1.7% and was on track for its worst week in three months with a loss of almost 3%. Japan’s Nikkei closed slightly lower.
Government bond yields in Europe and the United States rose.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback’s performance against a basket of six major currencies, was up 0.17 percent at 104.33, from a four-month low of 103.64 hit on Wednesday.
The euro was down 0.12 percent at $1.0883, having fallen in the previous session after the European Central Bank (ECB) held interest rates as expected but left the door open for a cut in September by downgrading its view on the euro zone’s economic outlook.
Sterling was down 0.2 percent at $1.2923 after data showed that British retail sales fell more than expected in June, while the dollar was steady at around 157.45 yen.
In commodities, Brent crude prices fell 8 cents, or 0.1%, to $85.03 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures were down 17 cents, or 0.2%, at $82.65 a barrel.
Gold was down 1%, retreating from a record high of $2,483.60 an ounce hit earlier in the week on the prospect of lower global interest rates.
Source: Ambito
I am a 24-year-old writer and journalist who has been working in the news industry for the past two years. I write primarily about market news, so if you’re looking for insights into what’s going on in the stock market or economic indicators, you’ve come to the right place. I also dabble in writing articles on lifestyle trends and pop culture news.
