Friday looks set to continue the trend for the entire week as stocks continued to fall in Europe and Asia ahead of the North American open. The MSCI World Index of developed-nation shares retreated 0.4 percent at 7:59 a.m. in New York, heading for an almost eight-month low. Futures on the S&P 500 expiring in June slid as much as 1.2 percent to 1,057.6, following a 3.9 percent plunge in the U.S. benchmark index yesterday, and Dow Jones Industrial Average futures retreated below 10,000. The euro rose 0.4 percent to $1.2540, after climbing to $1.2672. The 30-year Treasury yield dropped to as low as 4.05 percent.
“It’s a material risk that the problem is continuing to get bigger and to get worse,†Arnab Das, the head of global market research and strategy at Roubini Global Economics in London, said in an interview. “As these budget cuts come through, the economies are potentially going to go sharply downward. The general tendency is going to be downward†for the euro, he said.
Source: Bloomberg
