(As of 7:20 am PST)
Stocks are continuing to slide in the early-going Friday
sending global equities, particularly emerging markets, into the red for the
second straight day. All 3 major US
indexes are lower as investors continue to digest the disappointing results
from China’s manufacturing report and what the slowdown could mean for global
capital markets. Concerns over the
implications of the Federal Reserve taper and prospects of future rate hikes
have money managers scratching their heads on the direction for markets in
2014. Risk aversion has set in thus far,
as emerging market stocks have taken the brunt of the selling. “Safe-haven” assets such as treasury bonds
and gold are higher for the second straight day while the US dollar fell
sharply yesterday and is down slightly today.
Some decent quarterly earnings reports from big US names weren’t enough
to buoy stocks, but are worth noting.
Microsoft and Starbucks both reported earnings beats sending shares
higher by 3%. Proctor & Gamble,
Kimberly-Clark, and Bristol-Myers Squibb are also higher on good
earnings. With this morning’s drop, the
Nasdaq is now trading near flat on the year while the Dow and S&P 500 are
down year-to-date. It’s too early to tell if
this is the “correction” many analysts are calling for this year, but an unwind
of sorts from multi-year highs would not be unexpected for this richly valued
market.
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