Even after China’s Shanghai stock market recovered Friday to gain 2%, the USA market remained volatile with the S&P 500 posting its worst opening week ever.
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Stocks were hit hard Thursday following China’s largest downward adjustment to the yuan since August.
China’s stock market sank about 7 percent Thursday after the yuan fell to its lowest level compared to the dollar since March 2011. And for the second time this week, Chinese regulators were forced to halt trading to stem the bleeding.
Exxon and Chevron fell about 1.5 per cent weighing the most on the Dow and S&P 500.
Meanwhile, the S&P 500 index SPX fell -2.37% to 1,943.09 and the Nasdaq Composite was down -3.03% or 146.34 points, to close at 4,689.43.
Markets around the world are edging higher Friday after China stocks closed up, and as investors turn their attention to the U.S.jobs report.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged through support at 16,680 with hardly a hesitation.
The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index ended down 1.5 percent, leaving it with a loss of around 7 percent over the course of the week.
Menlo Park-based Facebook nose-dived 4.9 percent, Cupertino-based Apple plummeted 4.2 percent, Foster City-based Gilead Sciences tumbled 4 percent, Santa Clara-based Intel declined 3.8 percent, Los Gatos-based Netflix slipped 2.7 percent and San Francisco-based salesforce.com dropped 2.6 percent. Not only are energy company profits crumbling, but some fear the oil plunge is a harbinger of a deeper slump in global growth.
Traders kept a close eye on the key December employment data due out Friday, the first jobs report since the U.S. Federal Reserve’s mid-December decision to raise its interest rates.
At the same time that China’s stocks have been selling off, crude oil prices have kept tumbling, reinforcing the notion that the global economy is in trouble.
An investor checks stock information on a computer screen at a brokerage house in Shanghai, China, January 8, 2016. The yield on 10-year Treasury bond was unchanged at 2.17 percent. Brent crude, the benchmark for worldwide oils, lost 48 cents to $33.75 a barrel in London. Some analysts expect the Chinese markets to continue struggling when it opens Friday.
Yahoo fell 5.5 per cent to $US30.51 after Business Insider reported the company was working on a plan to cut its workforce by at least 10 per cent. Alibaba, in which Yahoo has a stake, was down 6.3 per cent at $US72.66. On the Big Board, decliners outpaced advancers by 6.2-to-1, and on the Nasdaq, decliners led by 6.1-to-1.
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The most active gold contract for February delivery rose 15.9 dollars, or 1.46 percent, to settle at 1,107.80 dollars per ounce.
