U.S. Tech Falls on Results; Asia Stocks Look Mixed: Markets Wrap

(Bloomberg) -- Fresh concerns about the outlook for technology giants dragged U.S. equity futures lower, while Asian stocks looked poised for a mixed start on Friday. The dollar held overnight gains and Treasury yields rose.

Contracts on the Nasdaq 100 and S&P 500 sank following a string of reports from Amazon.com Inc., Facebook Inc., Alphabet Inc. and Apple Inc. The iPhone maker fell about 5% in after-hours trading. The S&P 500 had earlier bounced back a day after its biggest rout in four months, with investors encouraged by better-than-forecast economic data even as they kept a wary eye on growing coronavirus infections. Benchmark Treasury yields climbed back past 0.80%. Australian shares opened marginally higher.

Elsewhere, oil slid to a multi-month low on fears of demand destruction from tighter lockdown measures. The euro weakened after the European Central Bank paved the way for a package of fresh easing in December to deal with a worsening economic outlook.

Uncertainty remains elevated heading into next week’s U.S. election and global equities are on course for the worst weekly decline since June amid new lockdown measures and the lack of agreement on a U.S. stimulus plan. The Covid-19 surge in the Midwest rose to a record, led by single-day highs in Kansas, Iowa and South Dakota as the region’s outbreak spread toward both coasts.

“There is going to be more volatility ahead of the election,” Quincy Krosby, chief market strategist at Prudential Financial Inc., said on Bloomberg TV. “Over the weekend folks are going to be focused on Pennsylvania to see whether or not Biden is gaining there. The concern is if he gains a little bit, that may be one where you could actually look to a contested election.”

Here are the main market moves:

Stocks

S&P 500 Index futures fell 0.7% and Nasdaq 100 contracts were down 1% as of 8:34 a.m. in Tokyo. The S&P 500 rose 1.2% on Thursday.Futures on Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.2%.Hang Seng futures earlier added 0.3%.Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index gained 0.3%.

Currencies

The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was steady after increasing 0.4% Thursday.The yen was at 104.55 per dollar.The offshore yuan traded at 6.7061 per dollar.The euro bought $1.1677.

Bonds

The yield on 10-year Treasuries rose five basis points to 0.82% on Thursday.Australia’s 10-year yield was at 0.83%.

Commodities

WTI crude declined 0.1% to $36.14 a barrel.Gold was at $1,868.22 an ounce.

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