Stocks in Australia slipped on Friday morning following another tumble on Wall Street overnight, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropping by more than 500 points.
The ASX 200 was trading lower in morning trade after losing 0.52 percent earlier in the session, with most sectors seeing losses. The energy sector was lower by 1.92 percent, while the heavily weighted financial subindex fell by 0.77 percent.
Meanwhile, the Nikkei futures contract in Chicago was at 22,565 while its counterpart in Osaka was at 22,450. The Nikkei 225 last closed at 22,590.86.
Overnight on Wall Street, stocks continued to dive for the second straight day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped by 545.91 points to close at 25,052.83, while the S&P 500 fell by 2.1 percent to end the trading day stateside at 2,728.37 — below its 200-day moving average for the first time since April. The Nasdaq Composite also declined by 1.3 percent to close at 7,329.06.
Commenting on the plunge in stocks stateside, U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday from the Oval Office: “It’s a correction that I think is caused by the Fed and interest rates.”
Trump said he believes the U.S. central bank’s monetary policy “is far too stringent,” adding that “they’re making a mistake and it’s not right,” and saying he was “not going to fire” Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell.
White House economic advisor Larry Kudlow also told CNBC on Thursday “there’s some movement” toward a meeting between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Argentina at the G-20 summit in November, though the talks and topics to be addressed by the two leaders have not “been set in concrete.”
The futures market, however, suggested that a recovery could happen in the next trading session stateside. As of 6:50 p.m. ET, the Dow Jones industrial average futures was up by 91 points, indicating a gain of 218.17 points at Friday’s open. S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures also pointed to solid gains to start off Friday’s session.
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 95.017 as of 7:04 a.m. HK/SIN, following a slide overnight.
The Japanese yen, widely viewed as a safe haven currency, was at 112.11 against the dollar, while the Australian dollar was at $0.7123 after seeing gains yesterday.
— CNBC’s Fred Imbert contributed to this report.
