Stocks stumble as growth worries resurface, tech’s glow fades

By Rae Wee

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Asian shares and global futures fell on Wednesday amid a technology sell-off, while the dollar and yen rose on safety offers and U.S. Treasury yields fell as investors worried about the outlook for the world’s largest economy.

Oil prices struggled near their lowest level in months on signs of an agreement to resolve a dispute that has halted Libyan crude production and exports. (OR)

Brent crude futures were 0.05% lower at $73.71 a barrel, while U.S. crude futures were down 0.13% at $70.25 a barrel after which both fell to their weakest since December in the previous session.

Wall Street closed sharply lower overnight after the US returned from a holiday earlier in the week, with AI darling Nvidia falling nearly 10% as investors dampened optimism about artificial intelligence.

That created a negative lead in Asia, with MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan falling 0.44 percent in early trade, while U.S. futures extended their decline.

S&P 500 futures fell 0.1%. Nasdaq futures fell 0.15 percent.

Japan’s Nikkei fell more than 3 percent.

September has historically been a bad month for stocks, although analysts pointed to a confluence of factors, including warm U.S. manufacturing data, behind the market’s latest decline.

“September got off to a lively start and the air of reducing portfolio risk as the US returned from the Labor Day holiday was seen across all areas of the capital markets,” said Chris Weston, head of research at Pepperstone.

“Growth concerns were the key theme of the day, cycle-sensitive assets were broken and hedges set aggressively.”

A slew of US economic data is available throughout the week, including numbers on job openings, jobless claims and the closely watched non-farm payrolls report on Friday.

Given the Federal Reserve’s focus on the health of the US labor market, Friday’s statement could decide whether a rate cut expected this month will be regular or super-sized.

Safe havens such as the dollar and yen, meanwhile, rose on safe-haven offers, with the Japanese currency inching slightly higher at 145.36 per dollar.

The euro retreated further from a 13-month high and was little changed at $1.1048, while the pound was down 0.04% at $1.311.

Elsewhere, spot gold rose 0.05 percent to $2,494.23 an ounce. (EMPTY/)

(Reporting by Rae Wee; Editing by Sam Holmes)