Precious metals miners bucked the trend, as gold hit a six-week high, prompting investors to look for safe-havens.
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Fresnillo was up 0.2 percent while Randgold Resources outperformed with a 0.7 percent drop. The Nasdaq slid 171.45 points, or 3.5 percent, to 4,706.04. It is 12 percent below an all-time high hit in April. Tokyo shares fell 2.98 percent to 19,435.83, a more than three-month low, down 5.28 percent on the week.
China jitters: In China, a preliminary version of a gauge of business activity, the Caixin purchasing managers’ index, fell to an unexpectedly low 47.1 points. A figure below 50 indicates contraction.
The devaluation of the yuan last week has shaken confidence in the world’s No. 2 economy.
The decline came after Wall Street saw its worst session in 18 months on Thursday while there was another steep drop of 4 per cent for Shanghai’s Composite Index.
“To our minds, the gradual recovery taking shape in the advanced economies can weather what we expect will be a prolonged period of weaker growth in a number of the major emerging markets”, the analysts said. Although the company’s first-half earnings beat analysts’ expectations, investors were disappointed that it cut its capex target for the full year. It said it expects the weak agriculture and energy sectors to continue dragging down equipment sales.
The export-focused German DAX index also weakened by 0.9 percent.
It means the FTSE 100, which has now endured nine days of losses, has seen £92.8 billion of value removed this week alone.
Greece back, too: Greece looks headed for another election on September 20 provided opposition parties can’t form a new government.
Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras’s announcement that he’ll “The renewed fears over Greece’s funds prompted a stir within the UK’s banks and insurers, and since Athens resides surviving bail-out to bail-out, the issues will floor once more”, Mr Madden concluded. The country earlier this week got its hands on the first tranche of cash from its third worldwide bailout.
“There are so many more concerns than hopes”, said Larry Peruzzi, director of worldwide trading at Cabrera Capital Markets in Boston.
Markets linked to the mainland also suffered with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropping 1.9%. Fed officials highlighted a range of reasons for caution, from tumbling oil prices to a slowdown in China. It has now been in decline for eight consecutive weeks, the longest streak since 1986.
Oil prices remained under pressure.
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On a year-on-year basis, construction output was down 2.3% in June compared with a downwardly revised 0.2% gain in May.
