Global stocks extended their slide into a second week Monday, with markets in Japan recording the biggest single-day decline in more than fifteen months and U.S. equity futures looking at another round of opening bell losses as investors dump shares in the face of rising bond yields fed by faster inflation.
On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is looking at another session of triple-digit losses, with contracts tied to the benchmark trading 312 points lower from Friday's close, which -- at 666.75 -- points was one of the biggest single-day declines in history. S&P mini futures were also flashing red and were marked 19.5 points, or 0.71% lower, in early European trading.
Well Fargo & Co. (WFC) shares are expected to open sharply lower Monday, with an opening bell price of $58.38 each after the U.S. Federal Reserve said it can't grow any further until its submits a plan that proves it has beefed-up its risk management and board oversight following a 2016 "fake accounts" scandal that rocked the country's third-largest bank.
Citing "recent and widespread consumer abuses and other compliance breakdowns" in a Friday statement that coincided with the end of Janet Yellen's four-year term as Fed chair, the central bank also demanded three new Wells Fargo board members by April and a fourth by the end of the year. The Fed's so-called "consent order" will cut the bank's full-year profits by between $300 million and $400 million, Wells Fargo said.
In Europe, stocks were sharply lower to start the week, with the Stoxx 600 down 1.55% to 382.05 by mid-day and the DAX performance index giving back more than 130 points, a move that pushes the it to the lowest level in five months. Britain's FTSE 100 opened 102 points, or 1.37%, in the red, taking the U.K. equity benchmark back to early December levels.
Overnight in Asia, markets were hammered by last week's sell-off on Wall Street, which was accelerated by a faster-than-expected reading for average hourly wage growth in the January jobs report. That figure, which showed pay rising at 2.9%, the most in more than 8 years, triggered a spike in U.S. Treasury bond yields amid bets that it may lead to quicker consumer prices increases and more aggressive action from the U.S. Federal Reserve.
U.S. 10-year Treasury bond yields extended their slump Monday, pushing yields to a fresh four-year highs of 2.865% as they edge closer to the 3% mark pegged by many investors as the level at which equity returns would likely suffer as global pension and investment funds move cash into more attractively-yielding fixed income markets.
In European, benchmark German 10-year bund yields, the proxy for risk-free borrowing rates around the single currency area, hit a 2.5 year high of 0.774% in early Monday trading.
Japan's Nikkei 225 was the first market to react, falling 2.5%, the most since November 2016, following both the Friday action on Wall Street and increasing speculation that the Bank of Japan may be preparing for interest rate increases later this year.
The broadest measure of regional stocks, the MSCI Asia ex-Japan index, fell as much as 2% during part of the session, but pared that decline to around 1.5% as markets drew to a close thanks in part to stronger-than-expected economic data from China, which showed the services sector expanding at its fastest pace in six years last month.