US stocks retreat from records amid global sell-off

By Ovunc Kutlu

ANKARA (AA) - US stocks markets opened lower Monday, retreating from record-high levels, while indices in Europe and Asia faced sell-offs with worries amid higher coronavirus variant cases and a weaker economic outlook.

The Dow Jones was down 261 points, or 0.74%, to 35,252 points at 9.50 a.m. GMT, with oil majors ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips losing 2.5% each. The S&P 500 declined 26, or 0.6%, to 4,442. Both indices had posted new all-time highs last Friday.

The Nasdaq was down 94, or 0.63%, to 14,725 points with pharmaceuticals Novavax and Moderna plummeting more than 6% apiece.

The pessimism among investors caused the VIX volatility index, known as the fear index, to soar 14% to 17.56.

The yield on 10-year US Treasury notes was down 5.2% to 1.230%, but the dollar index rose 0.1% to 92.59.

Precious metals were mixed with gold rising 0.36% to $1,786 per ounce, but silver fell 0.2% to $23.71.

Oil prices extended their losses by falling more than 3%. Brent crude declined to $68.22 per barrel and West Texas Intermediate stood at $65.61.

- Asia

Rising COVID-19 variant cases worried investors, amid the possibility another lockdown this winter could hit the global economy again.

Sydney, Australia's largest city, recorded Monday its deadliest day of the pandemic yet.

New South Wales went into a seven-day lockdown as of Saturday, while seeing 478 new locally acquired cases of COVID-19 in the last 24 hours.

The economic outlook in China, the world's second-largest economy, also worried investors. Industrial production rose 6.4% in July from the same month a year ago, but well below market estimates of 7.8%. Retail sales were up 8.5%, again much lower than the 11.5% expectation.

Despite missing estimates, China's Shanghai stock exchange was up 1.05 points, or 0.05%, to 3,517 points. India’s Sensex benchmark index rose 0.31% or 169 points to 55,603 points.

The Asia Dow, which includes blue-chip companies in the region, lost 35.5 points, or 0.90%, to close at nearly 3,897 points. Tokyo's Nikkei 225 stock exchange also fell 453.96 points, or 1.62%, to 27,523.

The Hang Seng, the benchmark for blue-chip stocks trading on the Hong Kong stock exchange, posted a decline of 210.2 points, or 0.80%, to 26,181 and the Singapore index lost 0.63%, or 19.97 points, to 3,145 points.

- Europe

The global pessimistic outlook also hit European indices, which retreated from their record highs seen on Friday.

The STOXX Europe 600, which includes around 90% of the market capitalization of the European market in 17 countries, dropped 3.5 points, or 0.73%, to 472.37 as of 1412GMT.

London's FTSE 100 was down 94 points or 1.31%, to 7,126 and Germany's DAX index fell 90 points, or 0.56%, to 15,886 points.

France’s CAC 40 dropped 69, or 0.1% to 6,826 points, while Italy's FTSE MIB saw a decline of 227 points, or 0.85%, to 26,423.

Spain's IBEX 35 also lost 97 points, or 1.1%, to 8,905.