Investors are seen continuing to shy away from equity assets amid concerns of weak growth while safe-haven assets such as government bonds are in demand.
On Wall Street, stocks entered a slight rally before declining with the Dow Jones Industrial average index falling 0.75%, the S&P 500 losing 0.58%and the Nasdaq Composite down 0.26%.
MSCI’s worldwide stock benchmark fell 0.65% while the pan-European STOXX 600 index plunged 1.37%.
Meanwhile, a regional Federal Reserve (Fed) bank survey showed factory production in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States (US) declined from expectations in May with the 6-month business outlook expected to be weaker over the next 13 years.
This according to Wedbush Securities Managing Director of Equity Trading, Michael James, can be attributed to the collapse of US retail companies namely Walmart and Target which added to supply chain concerns.
Even so, James did not rule out any possibility of a bounce.
On the other hand, German 10 -year bond yields fell below the 1% level and US Treasury Yields fell with the emergence of more weak economic data thus raising concerns of monetary tightening.
The yield on the 10 -year Treasury note fell 3.8 basis points at 2.846% after it hit a 3 -week low of 2.772%.
The currency summary saw the dollar depreciate across the board with the dollar index falling 0.896%, the Euro up 1.11% at $ 1.0582 while the Japanese Yen strengthened 0.35% at 127.70 per dollar.
In addition, the President of the Swiss National Bank (SNB), Thomas Jordan, who signaled readiness to act to curb inflationary pressures has helped the surge in the Swiss Franc.
As for commodities, gold futures rose 1.4% to $ 1,841.20 an ounce as the dollar weakened and treasury yields boosted the attractiveness of safe -haven assets.
