Energy companies fell with the price of oil and drug stocks also slipped.
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Meanwhile, Chinese equities bounced on another day of volatility across Asia as investors were panicked by Beijing’s attempts to stabilize its beleaguered markets, with fears growing the global economy could be teetering. On Thursday, Chinese stocks plunged seven percent, triggering a circuit-breaker mechanism that halted trading and unleashed a global sell-off.
The sell-off spread across continents, sending indexes sharply lower in the US and Europe.
Among large-cap shares, Samsung Electronics gained 0.69 percent, thanks to the fourth quarterly performance.
MSCI’s broadest gauge of stocks globally.MIWD00000PUS was down 0.8 percent on the day and fell more than 6 percent this week, also the largest such drop in more than four years.
Shares of Qorvo, were down six per cent at $US42.90, a day after the Apple supplier cut its revenue estimate for the third quarter. Those halts, which were triggered twice this week, are increasingly seen as inadequate measures to prevent volatility.
“The management of the Chinese economy is the real concern”, said John Canally, chief economic strategist at LPL Financial. On the Big Board, decliners outpaced advancers by 6.2-to-1, and on the Nasdaq, decliners led by 6.1-to-1. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index picked up 4 points, or 0.2 percent, to 1,947.
Despite the relative calm in China and a strong U.S.jobs report, the Dow fell 168 points on Friday, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq lost about 1% apiece. The Dow lost 392 points the day before following a steep drop in China’s market.
That’s one reason European and Japanese stock indexes have fallen even more than US markets this week. USA crude dipped 11 cents to $33.16 a barrel in NY and Brent crude, a benchmark for worldwide oils, lost 20 cents to $33.55 a barrel in London.
The NYSE Composite’s primary exchange traded 1.2 billion shares with total volume of 5 billion. In the last few days that has drowned out signs that the United States and Europe are doing fairly well. Investors are concerned that the yuan devaluation may imply that the China’s economy is weaker than considered which may have a negative effect on the world economic growth.
DEPARTMENT STORES STRUGGLE: Department stores Macy’s, Kohl’s and Nordstrom were among the biggest losers on the S&P 500.
“China’s stock market is among the world’s most expensive, the macroeconomic fundamentals are deteriorating and investors have been spooked by the incessant fudges to the market by the regulators”.
The price of copper fell 2 percent, however.
In other Asian markets, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.1 percent to 17,790.56 while Sydney’s S&P/ASX 200 was off 0.4 percent at 4,990.80. Those prices have been falling for years, but gold prices have recovered recently and are at their highest price in about two months. Southwestern Energy gave up 31 cents, or 4.6 percent, to $6.54. Its stock has plunged 85 percent over the last two years.
Commodities also took a hit with oil off 2.1% at $33.27 a barrel. In December, it raised its main rate to 0.25 percent, its first increase in almost a decade, largely because of an improvement in the USA labor market. On the Nasdaq, 1,842 issues rose and 490 fell.
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CURRENCIES, BONDS: The euro fell to $1.0904 from $1.0927 and the dollar edged up to 117.68 yen from 117.50 yen late Thursday.
