U.S. Stock Futures Tick Higher After Tech Selloff
September 09 2020 - 4:19AM
Dow Jones News
By Xie Yu
Asian stock markets fell, after a third straight session of
declines in New York, but futures suggested U.S. equities might
regain some poise, and European stocks rose.
Stock futures linked to the S&P 500 added 0.6% Wednesday.
European benchmarks rose in early trading, with the pan-continental
Stoxx Europe 600 up 0.5% and gains led by Germany's DAX and the
U.K.'s FTSE 100.
However, in Hong Kong, the city's Hang Seng Index and China's
Shanghai Composite both fell 1.1%. Equity benchmarks in Australia,
Japan and South Korea dropped 2.5%, 1.4% and 0.7% respectively.
Falls in big technology stocks pushed the Nasdaq Composite Index
down 4.1% Tuesday. That took its losses over three sessions to
10.03%, pushing it into correction territory.
"The correction in the U.S. market really weighed on sentiment
here," said Ken Wong, a portfolio manager at Eastspring Investments
in Hong Kong. Still, Mr. Wong said the pullback shouldn't have come
as too much of a surprise, given some stocks had doubled or tripled
in value in a few months.
In Hong Kong, shares in Meituan Dianping, the operator of one of
China's biggest food-delivery apps, fell 3.3%, extending a recent
reversal after huge gains earlier this year. Games and messaging
giant Tencent lost 0.9%, while smartphone maker Xiaomi dropped
1.3%. Japan's SoftBank Group dropped 4%, while Taiwan Semiconductor
Manufacturing Co. shed 1%.
Falling oil prices were also curbing risk appetite, Kerry Craig,
global market strategist at J.P. Morgan Asset Management, said.
But he said support from central banks and governments should
underpin markets, even amid uncertainty about the U.S. election and
development of coronavirus vaccines. On Tuesday, AstraZeneca PLC
paused trials of a Covid-19 vaccine after the unexplained illness
of a study participant.
Daniel Gerard, senior multi asset strategist at State Street
Global Markets, said aside from easy monetary policy and the recent
rally in technology stocks, there were few factors driving markets.
That made them fragile, he said. "When people get anxious, it
ripples through the system quite quickly."
The most actively traded futures contract for Brent crude, the
global oil benchmark, fell 0.6% to $39.56, while the equivalent for
gold edged down 0.4% to $1,935 a troy ounce.
The yield on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note fell to
0.671%, from 0.682%. Bond yields fall as prices rise.
Anna Isaac
contributed to this article.
Write to Xie Yu at Yu.Xie@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
September 09, 2020 04:04 ET (08:04 GMT)
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