NEW YORK (Reuters) – Asian markets will open mostly lower on Friday as China promised to retaliate against a US order to close one of its consulates, and US equity markets fell on bleak data about their market. labor.
FILE PHOTO: A security guard wearing a face mask stands near the Bund Financial Bull statue and a screen showing an image of a medical worker following the new outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in The Bund in Shanghai, China on March 18. 2020. REUTERS / Aly Song / File Photo
Australian S & P / ASX 200 futures lost 0.86% in early trading.
Japanese Nikkei 225 futures added 0.11%, while the Nikkei 225 index closed the overnight session down 0.58%. Hong Kong Hang Seng index futures lost 1.13%.
E-mini futures for the S&P 500 rose 0.12%.
China said the US move to close its Houston consulate this week had “seriously damaged” relations and warned that it “must” retaliate after Washington ordered the office closed yesterday in a dramatic escalation of tension between the two largest economies in the world.
The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits unexpectedly rose to 1,416 million last week for the first time in nearly four months, suggesting that the United States’ economic recovery is stagnating amid a resurgence in COVID cases- 19.
The worsening pandemic, signs of a weakening recovery and mixed corporate earnings caused a sharp drop in US stocks, and investors fled the market-leading tech stocks.
The Wall Street sell-off escalated after a tech watchdog group reported that Apple Inc is facing investigations in several states by potentially misleading consumers. Apple shares settled 4.6% and the Dow, Nasdaq and S&P 500 were down.
“Markets had a bumpy ride overnight … as almost all the US data releases disappointed, and nervousness on the geopolitical front grew,” wrote Kishti Sen of ANZ Research.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.31%, the S&P 500 lost 1.23%, and the technology-rich Nasdaq Composite fell 2.29%.
Apple, Microsoft, Amazon.com, Facebook and Google’s parent Alphabet, all of which fell on Thursday, account for about 23% of the market capitalization of the entire S&P 500 Index, according to Goldman Sachs.
The dollar fell to a nearly two-year low against a basket of peer currencies and gold rose for the fifth straight session to nearly $ 1,900 an ounce, as tensions between the United States and China increased the appeal of the US safe haven. ingots.
Investors are selling the greenback on expectations that the US economy is likely to underperform its peers in the developed world, as the rise in new coronavirus infections led to the overall number of cases in the United States to more than 4 million.
US gold futures settled 1.3% higher at $ 1,890 an ounce.
The Australian dollar was up 0.01% against the dollar at $ 0.710 with the US Dollar Index falling 0.22% to $ 94.7970.
Oil prices fell 2% as the surge in coronavirus cases raised fears of a blow to demand and the latest dispute between the United States and China outweighed the benefit of a weaker dollar.
Brent crude futures settled 98 cents lower at $ 43.3 a barrel, and US crude futures fell 83 cents to settle at $ 41.07 a barrel.
The 10-year Treasury note fell 1.4 basis points to 0.5807%.
Report by Elizabeth Dilts Marshall; Editing by Stephen Coates
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