BANGKOK—Shares were lower in Europe and Asia on Friday after a late afternoon sell-off wiped out gains for stocks on Wall Street.
Britain’s FTSE 100 fell 0.9 percent to 7,518.29, while the DAX in Germany declined 1.4 percent to 15,695.88. In Paris, the CAC 40 lost 1.2 percent to 7,110.11. The future for the S&P 500 was 0.1 percent lower, while the future for the Dow industrials edged up 0.1 percent.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 1.79 percent from 1.83 percent late Thursday.
The share price of French energy giant TotalEnergies SE fell 1.4 percent after the company said it was preparing to withdraw from the Yadana field gas project in Burma (also known as Myanmar). The company earlier announced it was in support of sanctions following a coup on Feb. 1, 2021.
Chevron Corp. also said it would pull out of the project, which drew criticism because of the involvement of local partner Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprises, a government-controlled company.
On Thursday, the S&P 500 lost 1.1 percent to a three-month low, with nearly 85 percent of stocks in the index falling. It’s now down 6 percent for the year. The Nasdaq composite index fell 1.3 percent and the Dow Jones Industrial Average sank 0.9 percent.
In Asia on Friday, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index lost 0.9 percent to 27,522.26 after Toyota Motor Corp. announced production cuts due to parts shortages.
The Hang Seng in Hong Kong edged 0.1 percent higher, regaining earlier losses, to 24,965.55. The Shanghai Composite index shed 0.9 percent to 3,526.19.
Hong Kong-traded shares in e-commerce giant Alibaba fell 3.4 percent after a Chinese-made documentary suggested its financial arm might be implicated in a corruption probe.
The S&P/ASX 200 in Sydney dropped 2.3 percent to 7,175.80. South Korea’s Kospi slid 1.1 percent to 2,830.82. Thailand’s benchmark fell 0.3 percent.
Investors are bracing for higher interest rates and stocks are headed for weekly losses in what has so far been a losing month.
Surging coronavirus cases have added to jitters over supply chain problems that are disrupting manufacturing.
Investors are closely watching to see how U.S. employment data might affect the Federal Reserve approach to weaning the economy of its support by raising interest rates.
The Labor Department provided a disappointing update, reporting Thursday that the number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits rose to its highest level in three months as the fast-spreading omicron variant continued to disrupt the job market.
The job market has had a rocky recovery from the virus pandemic though the unemployment rate fell last month to a pandemic low of 3.9 percent.
The Fed is now expected to raise rates earlier and more often than it had previously signaled to fight inflation that is threatening the economic recovery. Supply chain problems and higher raw materials costs have prompted businesses to raise prices on finished goods, leading consumers to eventually rein in spending.
The latest round of corporate earnings is also giving investors a clearer picture of where Americans are spending money and how inflation is impacting the economy.
In other trading, U.S. crude oil lost $1.66 to $83.89 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It shed 25 cents to $85.80 on Thursday.
Brent crude oil, the basis for pricing international oil, lost $1.57 to $86.81 per barrel.
The U.S. dollar fell to 113.93 Japanese yen from 114.10 yen late Thursday. The euro rose to $1.1343 from $1.1313.
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