Industrial metals, grains and oil gained after news of a fire, later extinguished, near a Ukraine nuclear facility after fighting with Russian forcesAn employee passes share price information displayed on an electronic ticker board inside the London Stock Exchange Group’s offices in London, the UK. Picture: BLOOMBERG VIA GETTY IMAGES/LUKE MACGREGOR
In Europe, the Stoxx index of 600 companies sank 1.4% to 431 points, hitting a new low for the year as the benchmark eyed correction territory, meaning down 10% from its highs.With a 25-basis point interest rate increase by the Federal Reserve later this month now all but certain, economic data such as US non-farm payrolls on Friday before the opening bell on Wall Street were taking a back seat, said Michael Hewson, chief markets analyst at CMC Markets.
“You have escalating inflation risk, you have huge uncertainty about what’s going to happen next on the headline front, and a Russian president who wouldn’t rule out nuclear weapons — that is a pretty toxic backdrop,” Hewson said. In currency markets, the euro lost further ground and was set for its worst week versus the dollar in nearly two years as the prospect of sustained high commodity prices continued to drag on expectations of European economic growth.The fire that broke out in a training building near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the largest of its kind in Europe, during fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces was later extinguished, authorities said on Friday.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares ex-Japan tumbled as much as 1.5% to 585.6, the lowest level since November 2020, taking the year-to-date losses to 7%. Oil prices firmed, with the market also focused on whether the Opec+ producers, including Saudi Arabia and Russia, would increase output from January.