Stocks edge lower as Middle East conflict pushes oil higher
Wall Street stocks trade down
Oil prices gain 5%
US dollar edges higher
Safe-haven gold pares losses
Adds analyst comment, updates prices throughout
By Chibuike Oguh and Iain Withers
NEW YORK/LONDON, Oct 3 (Reuters) -Global stocks fell on Thursday, weighed by tepid trading in equity markets across the U.S. and other major regions, even as oil prices extended gains amid rising geopolitical tension from the Middle East conflict.
Wall Street's main indexes pared early gains and were trading slightly down. Data released on Thursday showed rising U.S. jobless claims, indicating labor market softness, but strong service-sector activity. The closely watched nonfarm payrolls report for September is due on Friday.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell 0.77% to 41,870.37, the S&P 500 .SPX fell 0.50% to 5,681.20 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC fell 0.40% to 17,853.07.
European stocks finished down 0.93% .STOXX as investors digested weak business activity survey data from the bloc. MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe .MIWD00000PUS fell 0.59% to 840.49.
Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS had earlier shed 1.3% overnight, largely driven by Hong Kong stocks .HSI sagging after a sizzling rally, with several markets, including mainland China and South Korea, closed for the day.
Japan's Nikkei .N225, however, ended up nearly 2% after the country's newly elected prime minister Shigeru Ishiba said it was not the time to raise rates after meeting Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda.
Geopolitical tensions loomed large, after Israel bombed Beirut early on Thursday, following a year of clashes with Iran-backed Hezbollah.
Oil prices gained on Thursday as concerns grew that the conflict could disrupt crude oil flows from the key exporting region, overshadowing a stronger global supply outlook. O/R
Brent and U.S. crude futures gained 5% each to $77.48 and $73.65, respectively. LCOc1, CLc1
"The fact that energy is up where everything else is down pretty significantly is an indication that today's move is a lot about the escalating conflict in the Middle East," said James St. Aubin, chief investment officer at Ocean Park Asset Management in Santa Monica, California.
"There's probably some trepidation or maybe some hesitation about putting money to work ahead of tomorrow's jobs report."
Gold prices rebounded from early losses as the U.S. dollar strengthened against major currencies. Spot gold XAU= rose 0.09% on the day to $2,658.87, hovering near record highs.
In currencies, the U.S. dollar index =USD gained 0.26% to 101.91. The euro was slightly down at $1.1029 EUR=EBS, and not far from Wednesday's low of $1.10325, a level last seen on Sept. 12.
Sterling GBP=D3 weakened 1.1% to $1.3123 after Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey told the Guardian newspaper that the central bank could become a "bit more aggressive" on rate cuts if inflation continued to ease. Against the Japanese yen JPY=EBS, the dollar strengthened 0.1% to 146.61.
Treasury yields rose after the jobless claims data and service sector report. Two-year Treasury yields US2YT=RR were last up at 3.6951% on Thursday, while benchmark 10-year yields US10YT=RR were at 3.831%.
Markets imply a 35% chance the Fed will cut interest rates by another 50 basis points in November, compared with almost 60% last week, and have around 70 basis points of easing priced in by year-end. FEDWATCH
Reporting by Iain Withers in London and Chibuike Oguh in New York
Editing by Peter Graff and Matthew Lewis
免责声明: XM Group仅提供在线交易平台的执行服务和访问权限，并允许个人查看和/或使用网站或网站所提供的内容，但无意进行任何更改或扩展，也不会更改或扩展其服务和访问权限。所有访问和使用权限，将受下列条款与条例约束：(i) 条款与条例；(ii) 风险提示；以及(iii) 完整免责声明。请注意，网站所提供的所有讯息，仅限一般资讯用途。此外，XM所有在线交易平台的内容并不构成，也不能被用于任何未经授权的金融市场交易邀约和/或邀请。金融市场交易对于您的投资资本含有重大风险。
所有在线交易平台所发布的资料，仅适用于教育/资讯类用途，不包含也不应被视为用于金融、投资税或交易相关咨询和建议，或是交易价格纪录，或是任何金融商品或非应邀途径的金融相关优惠的交易邀约或邀请。
本网站上由XM和第三方供应商所提供的所有内容，包括意见、新闻、研究、分析、价格、其他资讯和第三方网站链接，皆保持不变，并作为一般市场评论所提供，而非投资性建议。所有在线交易平台所发布的资料，仅适用于教育/资讯类用途，不包含也不应被视为适用于金融、投资税或交易相关咨询和建议，或是交易价格纪录，或是任何金融商品或非应邀途径的金融相关优惠的交易邀约或邀请。请确保您已阅读并完全理解，XM非独立投资研究提示和风险提示相关资讯，更多详情请点击 这里。
