By Elizabeth Dilts Marshall
NEW YORK, July 23 (Reuters) - Asian markets are set to open
mostly lower on Friday as China vowed to retaliate against a
U.S. order to close one of its consulates, and the American
equity markets fell on gloomy data about its labor market.
Australian S&P/ASX 200 futures YAPcm1 lost 0.86% in early
trading.
Japan's Nikkei 225 futures NKc1 added 0.11%, while the
Nikkei 225 index .N225 closed the overnight session down
0.58%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index futures .HSI HSIc1 lost
1.13%.
E-mini futures for the S&P 500 EScv1 rose 0.12%.
China said the U.S. move to close its Houston consulate this
week had "severely harmed" relations and warned it "must"
retaliate, after Washington ordered the office closed yesterday
in a dramatic escalation of tension between the world's two
biggest economies. The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits
unexpectedly rose to 1.416 million last week for the first time
in nearly four months, suggesting the United States' economic
recovery is stalling amid a resurgence in COVID-19 cases.
The worsening pandemic, signs of weakening recovery and
mixed corporate earnings all caused U.S. equities to drop
sharply, with investors fleeing market-leading tech shares.
Wall Street's sell-off steepened after a tech watchdog group
reported that Apple Inc AAPL.O faces investigations in
multiple states for potentially deceiving consumers. Apple
shares settled down 4.6% and pulled the Dow, Nasdaq and S&P 500
lower. "Markets had a bumpy ride overnight … as just about every
U.S. data release disappointed, and as nervousness on the
geopolitical front grew," wrote Kishti Sen of ANZ Research.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell 1.31%, the S&P
500 .SPX lost 1.23% and the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite .IXIC
dropped 2.29%.
Apple, Microsoft MSFT.O , Amazon.com AMZN.O , Facebook
FB.O and Google's parent Alphabet GOOGL.O , all of which
tumbled on Thursday, account for roughly 23% of market cap of
the entire S&P 500 index, according to Goldman Sachs.
The dollar slipped to an almost two-year low against a
basket of peer currencies and gold rose for a fifth straight
session to almost $1,900 an ounce, as U.S.-China tensions
increased bullion's safe-haven appeal.
Investors are selling the greenback on expectations the U.S.
economy will likely underperform its peers in the developed
world as the surge in new coronavirus infections pushed the
overall number of cases in the United States to over 4 million.
U.S. gold futures GCv1 settled 1.3% higher at $1,890 an
ounce.
The Australian dollar rose 0.01% versus the greenback at
$0.710 with the U.S. dollar index =USD down 0.22% at $94.7970.
Oil prices fell 2% as the surge in coronavirus cases
triggered fears of a hit to demand and the latest U.S.-China
spat outweighed the benefit of a weaker dollar.
Brent crude futures LCOc1 settled 98 cents lower at $43.3l
a barrel, and U.S. crude futures CLc1 fell 83 cents to settle
at $41.07 a barrel.
The 10-year Treasury US10YT=RR note fell 1.4 basis points
to 0.5807%.