NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- U.S. stocks were headed for another day of losses Friday, as worries of a global slowdown and Europe's debt crisis sparked a second sell-off in global markets.
Dow Jones industrial average (INDU), S&P 500 (SPX) and Nasdaq (COMP) futures fell more than 1% ahead of the opening bell. Stock futures indicate the possible direction of the markets when they open at 9:30 a.m. ET.
Wall Street got socked on Thursday, as renewed concerns about the U.S. and global economies sent major indexes plunging, pushed gold to a new high and U.S. Treasury bond yields to a record low.
Fears continued to build Friday, sending global markets reeling for a second straight session, and they're likely to remain at the forefront.
"Global markets remain rattled by a crisis that is fast morphing into a global banking and economic crisis on one side, and a very piecemeal policy approach to contain risks on the other," said Marc Chandler, global head of currency strategy at Brown Brothers Harriman.
A day after Morgan Stanley cut global growth forecasts and said the United States and Europe are "dangerously close to a recession," Deutsche Bank downgraded its growth outlook for China.
The German investment bank said a slowdown or recession in the U.S. or European economies would be "the single most important shock to the Chinese economy," and could slow the nation's GDP growth to 7%.
In 2010, China's economy grew at a robust rate above 10%, and is forecast to grow more than 9% in 2011.
Meanwhile, JPMorgan Chase trimmed its fourth-quarter U.S. GDP annual growth estimate to 1%, down from its previous projection of 2.5%. The bank also lowered its outook for the first quarter of 2012 to a 0.5% annual growth rate from 1.5%, warning that the risks of a recession are "are clearly elevated."
As they fled stocks, investors continued to seek shelter in traditional safe havens, including gold. The price of gold for December delivery jumped as much as $59.40 Friday, to bolt to a fresh intraday record of $1,881.40 an ounce before pulling back to about $1,855.
World markets: European stocks were in the red in afternoon trading. Britain's FTSE (FTSE) 100 slumped 1.5%, the DAX (DAX) in Germany dropped 2.6% and France's CAC (CAC) 40 fell 1.3%.
It was another tough day for Asian markets. Japan's Nikkei (N225) lost 2.5%, the Hang Seng (HSI) in Hong Kong tumbled 3.1% and the Shanghai Composite (SHCOMP) fell 1%.
Companies: Late Thursday, Hewlett-Packard said it is looking to spin off its industry-leading but struggling personal computer business. HP (HPQ, Fortune 500) also killed off the TouchPad tablet it launched last month, as well as its webOS smartphone line.
The company also said it has agreed to buy British software developer Autonomy for roughly $10.2 billion in cash. Shares of HP sank 15% in premarket trading.
Bank of America's (BAC, Fortune 500) stock dipped 2% in early trading, after the company announced it is cutting 3,500 jobs, in addition to the 2,500 jobs the bank eliminated earlier this year.
Currencies and commodities: The dollar firmed against the euro and British pound, and was flat versus the Japanese yen.
Oil for September delivery slipped $1.50 to $80.88 a barrel, having fallen as low as $79.17 earlier in the session.
Bonds: The price on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury fell slightly, pushing the yield up to 2.09% from 2.08% late Thursday.
Index | Last | Change | % Change |
---|---|---|---|
Dow | 32,627.97 | -234.33 | -0.71% |
Nasdaq | 13,215.24 | 99.07 | 0.76% |
S&P 500 | 3,913.10 | -2.36 | -0.06% |
Treasuries | 1.73 | 0.00 | 0.12% |
Company | Price | Change | % Change |
---|---|---|---|
Ford Motor Co | 8.29 | 0.05 | 0.61% |
Advanced Micro Devic... | 54.59 | 0.70 | 1.30% |
Cisco Systems Inc | 47.49 | -2.44 | -4.89% |
General Electric Co | 13.00 | -0.16 | -1.22% |
Kraft Heinz Co | 27.84 | -2.20 | -7.32% |
Overnight Avg Rate | Latest | Change | Last Week |
---|---|---|---|
30 yr fixed | 3.80% | 3.88% | |
15 yr fixed | 3.20% | 3.23% | |
5/1 ARM | 3.84% | 3.88% | |
30 yr refi | 3.82% | 3.93% | |
15 yr refi | 3.20% | 3.23% |
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