Wall Street selloff accelerated on Friday, with the Dow Jones falling for the 5th straight session by more than 270 points as Apple Inc tumbled 3.3% after a federal judge ruled that the tech giant can no longer force developers to use in-app purchasing. The S&P lost 0.8%, also its 5th decline in a row as investors became again concerned that surging Covid-19 cases would derail the economic recovery. Meanwhile, the latest data showed US producer inflation rose 0.7% from a month earlier in August, above expectations of 0.6% and pressuring the Fed to step back easy policies. On the bright side, a call between President Biden and President Xi Jinping raised hopes that the tensions between the two countries will be eased. For the week, the Dow Jones dropped about 2.2%and the S&P 500 retreated 1.7%, their biggest weekly declines since June. The Nasdaq Composite went down 1.6% for the week.
The BSE Sensex ended little changed for the third consecutive session at 58,305.07 on Thursday, with global sentiment turning cautious on slowing economic growth and potential stimulus tapering by the ECB. Gains driven by heavyweights Nestle India (+2.83%) and Bharti Airtel (+2.77%) offset the losses in some financial stocks. On the economic front, India’s fuel demand jumped 10.9% in August compared to a year ago but remained lower than the previous month as monsoon rains slowed mobility and consumption, as per data released by Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC) of the oil ministry. Elsewhere, automaker Ford announced to halt manufacturing in India and rely solely on imports, after suffering over USD 2 billion losses in the last 10 years, making it the third American auto giant, after General Motors and Harley Davidson to leave the Indian market. On the week, the BSE booked a 0.3% gain.
China's factory gate inflation hit a 13-year high in August driven by roaring raw materials prices despite Beijing's attempts to cool them, putting more pressure on manufacturers in the world's second-largest economy. The producer price index (PPI) rose 9.5% from a year earlier in August .That was the fastest pace since August 2008. A separate NBS statement showed that the consumer price index (CPI) in August rose 0.8% from a year earlier. China tightened social restrictions to curb the COVID-19 Delta variant including travel limits, which have hampered service-sector demand, although Beijing has largely contained the latest coronavirus outbreaks. Service-sector activity plunged in August to the lowest level since the pandemic's first wave in April 2020, a recent survey showed, as COVID-19 restrictions threatened to derail the recovery.
China's economy has recovered strongly from last year's coronavirus slump but has been losing steam recently due to domestic COVID-19 outbreaks, high raw material prices, tighter property curbs and a campaign to reduce carbon emissions. Commodity prices have been on a tear in recent months, hurting the bottom lines of many mid- and downstream factories. China's coal prices soared to a record high on Tuesday over supply concerns as major coal regions started fresh rounds of safety checks. Earnings at China's industrial firms have slowed for five straight months. Prices in the coal mining and washing sector grew 57.1% in August from a year earlier. Many analysts expect the People's Bank of China to deliver a further cut to the amount of cash banks must hold as reserves later this year to lift growth, on top of July's cut, which released around 1 trillion yuan ($155.32 billion) in long-term liquidity into the economy. The core consumer price index, which strips out volatile food and energy prices, stood at 1.2% on year, versus a 1.3% rise in July.