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LONDON (AP) — Renewed weakness in the tech-heavy Nasdaq index in the U.S. roiled global markets Friday.
The Nasdaq index fell a further 0.6 percent to 4,029 after slumping 3 percent on Thursday — its worst day since 2011 — as tech and biotech stocks took another hammering after a two-day recovery. The Nasdaq has been the main driver of global markets since last Friday when concerns over the valuation of many of its constituent stocks first erupted.
"There's a lot of pessimism in the markets right now," said Craig Erlam, market analyst at Alpari.
Following broad-based losses in Asia, where Japan's Nikkei suffered another big retreat, shares in Europe have fallen sharply. The FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was down 1.3 percent at 6,551 while Germany's DAX fell 1.7 percent to 9,294. The CAC-40 in France was 1.6 percent lower at 4,344.
Wall Street as a whole was tracking the Nasdaq lower — the Dow Jones industrial average was down 0.6 percent at 16,075 while the broader S&P 500 index fell 0.5 percent to 1,824.
Disappointing earnings from JPMorgan Chase weighed on U.S. markets as the quarterly banking reporting season kicked off. JPMorgan fell 4 percent in early trading.
Earlier in Asia, Tokyo's Nikkei 225 lost 2.4 percent to close at 13,960.05 and South Korea's Kospi slipped 0.6 percent to 1,997.44. Hong Kong's Hang Seng finished 0.8 percent lower at 23,003.64 and China's Shanghai Composite shed 0.2 percent to 2,130.54.
Elsewhere, the mood was fairly lackluster with the euro flat at $1.3887 and a barrel of benchmark New York crude 51 cents higher at $103.89.
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