US pre-open: Sell-off to continue as stock futures plummet
US stock markets were expected to tumble again on Friday as the global equity sell-off showed no signs of abating.
Symantec Corp.
$20.72
09:40 26/04/24
Stock futures for the S&P 500, Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq were all showing losses of 2.1-2.3% by 08:36 in New York.
Concerns about a global slowdown and a growing Ebola epidemic hammered stocks on Thursday, with European markets tracking losses on Friday ahead of the opening bell on Wall Street.
The Dow plunged 335 points, or 2%, registering its worst single-day performance in over a year.
Meanwhile, the S&P 500's 2.1% drop came just a day after the index surged 1.7%, reflecting a recent spike in volatility that has plagued markets worldwide.
Technical analyst Bill McNamara from Charles Stanley said that the swing in sentiment seemed to be a "direct reaction" to comments from Federal Reserve official James Bullard who claimed that investors were too optimistic about the timing of the first rate rise. "The markets are making a mistake", Bullard said.
McNamara said: "[Thursday's] sharp decline took the [S&P 500] index through the low end of its recent range and to an eight-week low; more to the point, the S&P has dropped through its short-term uptrend in a decisive manner."
In corporate news, security software group Symantec was higher in pre-market trade on the back of plans to split into two listed entities.