By Chibuike Oguh and Carolyn Cohn
NEW YORK/LONDON (Reuters) -Global equities dipped on Friday, while the U.S. dollar gained as lower-than-expected earnings results from technology giants Amazon and Apple weighed on investors despite data showing solid growth in U.S. consumer spending.
Consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of U.S. economic activity, rose 0.6% in September, the Commerce Department said on Friday, overriding the effects of inflation and shortages from global supply chain constraints.
But market sentiments were bearish following quarterly earnings from Amazon and Apple on Thursday that both missed Wall Street predictions owing to increased labor costs and operational disruptions that were set to impact their revenue.
“Amazon and Apple are suggesting demand is strong but wage pressure is there, they won’t be able to deliver what they want for Christmas,” said Sebastien Galy, senior macro strategist at Nordea Asset Management.
“That’s affecting equities somewhat negatively.”
The MSCI world equities index, which tracks shares in 50 countries, dipped 0.4% to 744.04. European stocks rebounded from losses early in the day’s session and were up 0.07%.
On Wall Street, the benchmark S&P 500 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq were down, with the Dow up slightly in late morning trading.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.07% to 35,755.28, the S&P 500 lost 0.10% to 4,591.94 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.21% to 15,416.42.
The dollar bounced back from Thursday’s plunge after yields on government bonds rose and traders saw new inflation reports as challenging major central banks to pull back on asset purchases more quickly than planned.
The dollar index rose 0.884%, with the euro down 1.07% to $1.1554.
U.S. Treasury yields advanced, bolstered by the gain in employment costs and consumer inflation for September that further stoked expectations of aggressive monetary policy action from the Federal Reserve to combat the surge in prices.
The benchmark U.S. 10-year yield was trading up at 1.5714%.
Oil slipped towards $84 a barrel, heading for its first weekly loss in about two months after a rise in U.S. crude inventories and the prospect of more Iranian supply eased concern of a tight market.
Brent was at $84.29 per barrel, down 0.04%, while the U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude fell 0.37% to $82.50 per barrel
Gold prices fell to their lowest in over a week, weighed by rising U.S. bond yields and a stronger dollar.
Spot gold dropped 1.2% to $1,776.40 an ounce, while U.S. gold futures fell 1.37% to $1,777.00 an ounce.
(Additional reporting by Alun John in Hong KongEditing by Chizu Nomiyama and Mark Potter)
The post Global stocks dip, U.S. dollar rises on tech gloom appeared first on Morningology.
