Stocks, equity futures slide; dollar advances: markets wrap

Global stocks slid along with equity futures Friday amid concerns about volatile retail-trader speculation in the US and a cash squeeze in China. The dollar was set for its biggest weekly gain since October.

South Korea bore the brunt of broad-based losses across Asia. European equity contracts sank and S&P 500 futures fell about 1% after the US gauge rebounded Thursday from its worse loss since October. GameStop Corp. and AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. surged in post-market trading after brokerage Robinhood Markets Inc. said it will ease some curbs on activity in stocks whipsawed by online chatrooms.

Elsewhere, Treasuries were steady with the yield on 10-year notes around 1.05%. Sentiment in the US was boosted Thursday by earnings from the likes of Mastercard Inc. and Comcast Corp. and a surprise drop in jobless claims. Oil retained a decline as the spread of new Covid-19 variants and tighter lockdown measures weighed on nascent hopes of a demand recovery.

Global stocks are set for their worst weekly slide in about three months, partly on the turmoil caused by hoards of day-traders hatching stock bets that roiled hedge funds and strained trading platforms. Some strategists say investors should buy the dip because of the expected stimulus-fueled economic recovery from the pandemic. Others fear an uneven vaccine rollout signals a fragile outlook amid stretched valuations.

“There are a lot of reasons to continue to think we may see gains and I’m not negative on the stock market, I would just say that it’s rich in some areas right now,” Michael Cuggino, portfolio manager at Pacific Heights Asset Management LLC, said on Bloomberg TV. “We are long in the tooth with this bull market.”

These are the main moves in markets:

Stocks

• S&P 500 futures slipped 0.9% as of 7:10 a.m. in London. The gauge jumped 1% on Thursday.
• Japan’s Topix index slipped 1.6%.
• Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index fell 0.3%.
• Shanghai Composite dipped 0.6%.
• Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index fell 0.6%.
• Euro Stoxx 50 futures dipped 1.2%.

Currencies

• The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.2%.
• The euro bought $1.2107, down 0.1%.
• The offshore yuan was at 6.4733 per dollar.
• The yen dropped 0.3% to 104.51 per dollar.

Bonds

• The yield on 10-year Treasuries held at about 1.05%.

Commodities

• West Texas Intermediate crude fell 0.3% to $52.20 a barrel.
• Gold was at $1,849 an ounce, up 0.3%.