NEW YORK | US stocks fall on sharp decline in energy stocks; S&P 500 closes 10 percent below record set on Sept. 20

NEW YORK— US stocks fall on sharp decline in energy stocks; S&P 500 closes 10 percent below record set on Sept. 20.

By Associated Press

Markets Right Now: Stocks Fall Sharply On Wall Street

Trader Gregory Rowe works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Tuesday, Oct. 23, 2018. Stocks are opening sharply lower on Wall Street following big drops in Asia and Europe. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

NEW YORK — The latest on developments in financial markets (all times local):

11:45 a.m.

Stocks are falling sharply on Wall Street, sending the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 400 points…

Stock markets fell in Asia on Wednesday and the safe-haven dollar hovered near a two-week high as heightened worries over international trade conflicts and emerging market weakness curbed investors' appetite for riskier assets.

Stock markets in Asia tracked their global peers lower while the safe-haven dollar hovered near a two-week high on Wednesday as heightened worries over international trade conflicts curbed investor appetite for riskier assets.

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SINGAPORE  | Asia braces for US-China tariffs as stocks fall

SINGAPORE — Asian markets tumbled Thursday as China reiterated its determination to protect its interests in a rancorous trade dispute with Washington. Trading was subdued in the absence of leads from Wall Street with markets closed for the Independence Day holiday.

KEEPING SCORE:

Japan’s Nikkei 225 index fell 0.8 percent to 21,546.99 and the Shanghai Composite index dropped 1.0 percent to 2,731.73. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index tumbled 1.1 percent to 27,935.13 and the Kospi in South Korea lost 0.5 percent to 2,255.23. Australia’s S&P ASX/200 bucked the regional trend, adding 0.5 percent to 6,215.50. Shares fell in Taiwan and Southeast Asian indexes were mostly lower.

US-CHINA TARIFFS:

The Trump administration is set to impose a 25 percent tariff on $34 billion worth of Chinese imports starting Friday. It won’t target an additional $16 billion worth of Chinese goods until it gathers further public comments. China has said that it won’t make the first move. But it is expected to quickly retaliate with a similar amount of tariffs on American goods, including soybeans, electric cars and whiskey. On Thursday, Commerce Ministry spokesman Gao Feng hit back at “threats and blackmail” ahead of the planned U.S. tariff hike. He added that China would be forced to fight back to protect its own interests.

ANALYST’S TAKE:

“We are now two steps removed from the worries of trade tensions as the tariffs deadline looms, locking equity markets in a lackluster trading tone,” said Jingyi Pan of IG.

ENERGY:

Benchmark U.S. crude dropped 27 cents to $73.87 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract settled at $74.14 a barrel on Tuesday, after ticking up to over $75 a barrel in early trading. Brent crude, used to price international oils, shed 47 cents to $77.77 per barrel.

CURRENCIES:

The dollar ticked up to 110.55 yen from 110.51 yen on Wednesday. The euro rose to $1.1704 from $1.1641.

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LONDON (Reuters) - World shares fell and were set to end the week in the red on Friday while the dollar climbed to a seven-month high, as investors braced for a list of Chinese goods targeted in a first round of announced tariffs by the United States.

Stocks fell on Friday as political tensions intensified between Tahreek-e-Insaf and Pakistan Muslim League (N) after supporters of opposition party clashed with police in Islamabad, dealers said.

They added that the benchmark index fell in all trading sessions of the week in volatile trade due to political tensions in the country.

Strong corporate results in selected cement and oil scrips supported the index to close above session lows, said analyst Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corp. “Pressure in the global crude prices, foreign outflows and concerns for dismal exports played a catalyst role in bearish close.”

The Pakistan Stock Exchange's (PSX) benchmark KSE 100-share Index fell 0.29 percent or 114.43 points to close at 39,872.88 points. The highest index of the day remained at 40,061.24 points while the lowest level of the day was recorded at 39,536.92 points. KSE-30 Index also shed 0.24 percent 52.26 points to close at 21,817.88 points.

Turnover fell by 56 million shares to 328 million shares, trading value decreased to Rs10.84 billion from Rs12.47 billion, while market capital narrowed to Rs8.08 trillion against Rs8.12 trillion. Out of 429 companies’ active in the session, 143 closed in green, 264 in red while 22 remained unchanged.

“After a 5-day losing streak, the local bourse took some breather and witnessed a volatile session as the index juggled between green and red territories throughout the day,” said Global Research in a post market note.

FCCL (up 3.0 percent) supported the index with total highest contribution of 14 points after company announced higher than expected result for FY16 and 1Q, FY17. The gas utility companies SNGP (up 5.00 percent) and SSGC (up 4.98 percent) remained upbeat of the day.

Ahmed Saeed Khan, analyst at JS Research, said overall they expect that market would remain range bound in the upcoming week, where negative pressure on the market could be expected because of planned November 2, protests. “The situation between law enforcement and protestors is continuously deteriorating with each passing moment, therefore caution ahead is advised.”

The energy sector remained mostly in the red zone on the back of depressed global crude oil prices. Major laggards of the aforementioned sector were PPL (down 1.13 percent) and OGDC (down 0.27 percent).

Highest increase was recorded in shares of Wyeth Pak Ltd, which rose by Rs147.45 to Rs3,123.72/share, followed by Sanofi-Aventis that increased by Rs79.12 to Rs1,661.70/share. Major decline was noted in shares of Colgate Palmolive, which fell Rs85 to Rs1,640/share, followed by Service Industries Ltd that decreased by Rs63.68 to Rs1,218.32/share.

Significant turnover was recorded in stocks of Bank of Punjab, TRG Pak Ltd, K-Electric Ltd, Dewan Cement, TPL Trakker Ltd XD, Pace (Pak) Ltd, Sui Southern Gas Company Limited, Dost Steel (R), Dewan Motors and Dewan Salman.

Bank of Punjab remained the volume leader with 47.80 million shares with a decrease of 59 paisas to Rs15.74/share. It was followed by TRG Pak Ltd with 17.95 million shares with a fall of Rs1.37 to Rs39.53/share.

Shares’ turnover in the future contracts rose to 147 million shares from 101 million shares traded in the previous session.