· Stocks tumbled on Friday as global growth fears and the Federal Reserve's more cautious economic forecast sparked investor angst into the weekend.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average sank to its session lows heading into the close and finished down 460.19 points at 25,502.32. Bank stocks led the decline thanks to a sharp pullback in long-term Treasury yields. The S&P500 fell 1.9 percent to 2,800.71, its biggest one-day drop since Jan. 3. The Nasdaq Composite declined 2.5 percent to 7,642.67 as shares of Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, Alphabet and Apple all closed lower.
· European stocks slipped Friday as worse-than-expected economic data intensified concerns around slowing global growth.
The pan-European Stoxx 600 dropped provisionally 1.29 percent, with all sectors and bourses turning negative. Equities were initially positive earlier in the session.
· A slew of negative economic data weighed on investor sentiment on the final trading day of the week. IHS Markit's flash euro zone composite Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) fell to 51.3 in March from 51.9 the previous month — analysts were expecting a reading of 52.
French and German numbers also disappointed, with IHS' PMI figures for both economies coming in below expectations. Germany's manufacturing sector contracted for the third month in a row, data showed. The yield on the country's 10-year government bond turned negative for the first time since October 2016 as a result.
· Shares in Asia declined in Monday morning trade after a closely-watched signal of potential recession stateside appeared on Friday.
The broad MSCI Asia-ex Japan index fell 0.92 percent to 524.97, as of 9:05 a.m. HK/SIN.
The Nikkei 225 in Japan dropped more than 3 percent in the morning as shares of index heavyweights Fast Retailing, Softbank Group and Fanuc all fell sharply. The Topix index declined 2.71 percent.
Over in South Korea, the Kospi declined 1.46 percent as automaker Hyundai Motor saw its stock drop more than 3 percent.
· A military-linked party took an unexpected lead in elections in Thailand on Sunday, most likely cementing the army’s status as the country’s dominant political force.
With more than 90 percent of the ballots counted, Palang Pracharat, the military’s proxy party, had 7.5 million votes, according to a preliminary count by the Election Commission.
Thailand’s military has orchestrated more than a dozen successful coups, the latest in 2014, and has ruled the country through a junta since then.
Pheu Thai, the populist party that had been expected to finish first according to most polls, was in second place with seven million votes, the Election Commission reported.
Reference: CNBC, New York Time
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