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U.S. Tech Shares Tumble; Emerging Currencies Slide: Markets Wrap

Asia Stocks Face Drop Amid EM Turmoil, Dollar Gain: Markets Wrap

U.S. Tech Shares Tumble; Emerging Currencies Slide: Markets Wrap
A trader works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. (Photographer: Edouard H.R. Gluck/Bloomberg News)

(Bloomberg) -- Most U.S. stocks fell, with FANG shares tumbling as executives of the tech heavyweights faced scrutiny on Capitol Hill. The selloff in emerging market assets deepened, adding to the risk-off tone on global financial markets.

Twitter, Facebook and Alphabet helped send the Nasdaq Composite Index down 1.2 percent, the most in three weeks, during Congressional hearing on social media and foreign influences on elections. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished in the green. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index sunk to its lowest since April. An emerging-market currency gauge fell to a fresh one-year low, led for a second day by South Africa’s rand, before paring losses.

“Trade is looking worse, emerging markets are looking worse, but you’d think FANGs are pretty insulated from some of those negatives,” said Mike Bailey, director of research at FBB Capital Partners in Bethesda, Maryland. “Just the visual of seeing folks hauled in front of Congress is probably not helping the big-cap tech names.”

U.S. Tech Shares Tumble; Emerging Currencies Slide: Markets Wrap

The pound rallied after the British and German governments were said to have abandoned key Brexit demands to potentially ease the path for the U.K. to strike a deal with the European Union. Sterling pared the gain after Reuters reported that the German government said its position is unchanged.

“The more ‘positive’ or ‘friendly’ Brexit headlines we get, the harder it’ll be for pound bears to ignore,” said Viraj Patel, an ING Groep NV currency strategist.

Elsewhere, gold climbed, while WTI oil futures dropped in the context the recent run in the dollar and a potential build at the Cushing, Oklahoma, storage hub. Bitcoin fell after a report that Goldman Sachs was said to delay setting up a trading desk for cryptocurrencies.

Terminal users can read more in our Bloomberg Markets Live blog here.

Here are some key events coming up this week:

  • A key monthly U.S. employment report for August is due Friday.

These are the main moves in markets:

Stocks

  • The S&P 500 Index dropped 0.3 percent, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose less than 0.1 percent and the Nasdaq Composite Index declined 1.2 percent as of 4:07 p.m. in New York.
  • The Stoxx Europe 600 Index fell 1.1 percent, the lowest in more than two months.
  • The U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index declined 1 percent to the lowest in almost 19 weeks.
  • The MSCI Emerging Market Index dipped 1.7 percent, reaching the lowest in almost three weeks on its sixth straight decline and the biggest decrease in three weeks.
  • The MSCI Asia Pacific Index sank 1.5 percent, hitting the lowest in almost three weeks with its fifth consecutive decline and the largest tumble in more than three weeks.

Currencies

  • The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.2 percent, after reaching the highest in almost three weeks.
  • The MSCI Emerging Markets Currency Index sank 0.2 percent, touching the lowest level in 16 months.
  • The euro increased 0.4 percent to $1.1628.
  • The British pound rallied 0.4 percent to $1.2906, after hitting the weakest in almost two weeks.

Bonds

  • The yield on 10-year Treasuries rose less than one basis point to 2.90 percent.
  • The yield on two-year Treasuries declined less than one basis point to 2.65 percent.
  • Germany’s 10-year yield increased two basis points to 0.38 percent, the highest in a week.
  • Italy’s 10-year yield decreased 8 basis points to 2.94 percent, after touching the lowest in more than four weeks.

Commodities

  • West Texas Intermediate crude dipped 1 percent to $68.87 a barrel, after dropping to the lowest in more than a week on the biggest decrease in three weeks.
  • Gold rose 0.4 percent to $1,196.55 an ounce, the largest gain in a week.
  • LME copper gained 1 percent to $5,854.25 per metric ton, the first advance in more than a week.

To contact the reporters on this story: Sarah Ponczek in New York at sponczek2@bloomberg.net;Katherine Greifeld in New York at kgreifeld@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jeremy Herron at jherron8@bloomberg.net, Dave Liedtka

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