The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 2.06 percent from 2.09 percent late Wednesday.
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European stock markets extended losses as oil prices tanked below $30 a barrel and the outlook on China remained pessimistic. Singapore’s retail sales climbed an annual 4.7 percent in November, surpassing economists’ expectations for a 3.4 percent increase, a government report showed.
“I’m not panicked. I don’t think this is a financial crisis”, said Jack Ablin, chief investment officer for BMO Private Bank, which oversees $68 billion.
If there’s good news, he says, it is that those deflation concerns “may dissipate if China continues to move to stabilize their currency as they have done pretty decisively in recent days”, and if the Fed reduces the number of planned interest rate hikes this year.
Adding to the unease, Intel Corp. dropped 9 percent after predicting first-quarter sales that fell short of some estimates. A measure of default risk for junk-rated US companies surged to the highest three years. But this is the second time in only a matter of months that America’s major market indexes like the Dow and S&P 500 have been plunged into correction. It is less than 100 points away from breaching its low from last summer on August 26. While most money managers kept their cool, few offered assurances the U.S. market would bounce back soon, as it did after a similar bout of turmoil last August. The gauge is headed for a third weekly decline, its longest slide since July. For some market-watchers, the behavior in markets is beginning to resemble that scenario, especially on Wednesday when the Dow Jones index in NY closed 365 points lower.
By now, stock markets across the globe have lost over $14 trln since June, and despite Wall Street performing better during the period, now it might be time the U.S. stocks officially entered bear market.
“The market is manic depressive”, Howard Marks, a co- founder of Oaktree Capital Group LLC, the world’s biggest distressed-debt investor, said in an interview on Bloomberg Television.
The combination of sliding oil prices and China concerns delivered another knock to commodity-linked currencies.
German and Italian equities shed 3 percent in afternoon trading as Wall Street opened to losses of two percent at the end of another troubled week for global markets that was driven by plunging crude oil and Chinese slowdown concerns. Platinum fell to a seven-year low. Meanwhile, the global Brent standard traded in London, was up 1.9 percent at $30.87.
In South Korea, the benchmark Kospi index was lower by 0.9% at 1,898.26.
In China, the main Shanghai composite stock market index is down 21pc from a recent high in December.
The pan-European FTSEEurofirst 300 hit a new 13-month low, while Asian shares skidded to 3-1/2 year lows.
Shares of JPMorgan Chase went up 2.4%, after the bank reported a better than expected quarterly profit.
West Texas Intermediate crude fell as much as 6.2 percent, before trading 5.4 percent lower at $29.51 a barrel.
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Stocks fell around the world and bonds jumped as a five per cent slump in crude oil sent markets reeling after Chinese shares tumbled into a bear market. “It’s just been an very bad two weeks for investors”.
