U.S. markets point to losses following sharp global declines

NEW YORK –

Wall Street was expecting a lower open Monday, after Asian and European markets plunged sharply. Investor concerns over rising interest rates dominated a range of concerns.

Futures for the Dow industrials tumbled 0.7% while the same for the S&P 500 fell 0.8%.

Twitter shares surged almost 5% in premarket trading after several media outlets reported that Tesla CEO Elon Tesla and the company’s board had negotiated into Monday night over Musk’s bid to purchase the social media platform. Musk saidHe announced last week that he had raised $46.5 billion to purchase Twitter. This placed pressure on Twitter’s board of directors to strike a deal.

The Shanghai Composite index dropped 5.1% while Hong Kong fell 3.7%. This was due to China’s strict pandemic policies and rising case numbers.

France’s victory in the French presidential run-off election on Saturday, Emmanuel Macron, was widely anticipated. It clinched a second term, as expected.

Analysts are reminded by the remarkable performance of Marine Le Pen, a populist nationalist candidate, that this situation is fragile. said. Le Pen promised to erode French ties with NATO, the EU and Germany and he spoke out against EU sanctions regarding Russian energy supplies.

Midday trading saw a drop of 2% in France’s CAC40. Germany’s DAX fell 1.3% while Britain’s FTSE 100 lost 2%.

Japan’s benchmark Nikkei225 fell 1.9% to 26,590.78 in Asian trading. South Korea’s Kospi dropped 1.8% to 2,657.13. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 770 points, to 19,869.34. The Shanghai Composite lost 158 points, to 2,928.51. It is now below 3,000 for only the second time since July 2020.

Hong Kong-traded shares Baidu, an Internet company, fell 7% and PetroChina fell 4% because of falling oil prices.

“After the Wall Street selloff last week, there may be a decline in overall risk appetite in the region.” saidYeap Jun Rong is a market strategist at IG Singapore.

China is seeing an increase in COVID-19 cases, raising fears about pandemic lockdowns that could hamper economic recovery. Beijing has imposed lockdowns throughout several districts following an increase in the number of cases.

Investors also pay attention to earnings reports and forecasts of companies. Some have been disappointing, such as Verizon and Netflix. This contributed to Wall Street’s fall last week.

Investors are interested in what the U.S. Federal Reserve may do. The Federal Reserve chair has suggested that the central bank could raise short-term interest rates twice as much at its next meeting, which will be held in two weeks. The Fed already increased its overnight key rate one time, marking the first such increase since 2018.

As the war in Ukraine drives up oil, gas, and food prices, markets around the globe are experiencing similar pressures on rates and inflation.

The benchmark U.S. crude fell to $4.92 per barrel and dropped to $97.15 per barrel in energy trading. This was due to electronic trading on New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude, an international standard, dropped $4.86 to $101.29 per barrel.

The U.S. dollar fell to 128.24 Japanese Yuan from 128.59 Yoen in currency trading. The euro was $1.0751, a drop from $1.0803.