By Riva Gold 

Global stocks and bond yields fell Thursday while the dollar continued to weaken as President-elect Donald Trump's news conference rippled across markets.

The Stoxx Europe 600 fell 0.4% in the early minutes of trading, led lower by a 1.6% drop in health care shares. The Nasdaq Biotechnology Index fell 3% Wednesday after Mr. Trump said Wednesday the drug industry was "getting away with murder" and called for "new bidding procedures."

Major U.S. stock indexes largely shook off the drop in health-care shares to close higher Wednesday, but futures pointed to a 0.2% opening drop for the S&P 500 on Thursday.

In currencies, the WSJ Dollar Index, which measures the dollar against a basket of 16 currencies, was last down 0.5%, deepening Wednesday's declines. Analysts said Mr. Trump failed to offer more clarity around his stimulus plans and trade policies at the news conference, disappointing some investors who had hoped for more details on his plans to cut taxes and reduce regulation. The yen was last up 0.7% against the dollar, while the euro was up 0.4% and the British pound was up 0.6%.

10-year U.S. Treasury yields also fell to 2.316% from 2.368% on Wednesday, when it settled at its lowest of the year. German bund yields fell to 0.223% from 0.260%. Yields move inversely to prices.

Earlier, the weaker dollar helped send Japanese stocks--which tend to benefit from a weaker local currency--down 1.2%. Stocks in Shanghai fell 0.6%, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index shed 0.5%.

Commodity markets remained firm as the dollar softened, with Brent crude oil last up 0.1% at $55.17 a barrel and copper futures up 0.7% at $5,762 a ton, helping lift shares of mining companies.

Write to Riva Gold at riva.gold@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 12, 2017 04:04 ET (09:04 GMT)