(Bloomberg) — Global stocks extended a slide as the slide in megacap tech stocks threatened to escalate amid widespread technical outages that followed disruptions to Microsoft Corp.’s online services.

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Europe’s Stoxx 600 index lost 0.5 percent, falling for a fifth day, on track for its biggest losing streak since October. LSE Group Plc, which runs the London stock exchange, fell 1 percent after it said global technical issues were hampering the release of news. Opening trades were delayed on many exchanges.

In early US trading, Microsoft shares fell 2.8 percent, although it said it had resolved an outage to cloud services that was blamed for disrupting flights and banks. Cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike Inc. fell as much as 14% in early US trading after telling CNBC it had been affected by the outage. Shares in major airlines including United Airlines Holdings and Delta Air Lines Inc. fell more than 1%.

Contracts for the S&P 500 fell about 0.2 percent, while those for the Nasdaq 100 fell 0.4 percent.

The disruptions come at the end of a week in which the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 3.7 percent — on track for its worst since April — as investors pulled out of megacap tech names and turned to smaller companies. The Russell 2000 rose 2.3% this week.

The moves were accelerated by signs that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates in September – a view bolstered by data on Thursday showing the biggest rise in jobless claims since early May – as well as the possibility of more protectionism under a possible Donald Trump presidency Trump.

“From a big picture perspective, both the Fed moving to cut rates and the chances of Trump increasing should be positive for risk,” said Mohit Kumar, strategist at Jefferies International Ltd. as we enter the summer months. Heavier industries suffered from the adjustment.’

Summer failure

The strategist at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Christian Mueller-Glissmann also sees the risk of a summer stock market pullback, as a result of “the combination of weaker growth data, already riskier central bank expectations and growing political uncertainty in the US election.”

As quarterly earnings continued to decline, Sartorius AG plunged 13% after the German electronics company cut full-year guidance. Computer game maker Ubisoft Entertainment SA fell more than 8 percent after missing full-year gross targets, while gaming company Evolution AB also fell after earnings missed estimates.

In the US, Netflix Inc. rose in extended trading after the streaming-video giant’s results showed strong subscriber additions.

Earlier in the day, MSCI’s Asia-Pacific index fell more than 1 percent, posting its biggest weekly drop in three months. The rout in chip stocks widened amid concerns over new US restrictions on sales to China. Shares of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. they retreated for the third day.

Key events this week:

Some of the main movements in the markets:

inventories

  • The Stoxx Europe 600 was down 0.6% at 9:08 a.m. London time

  • S&P 500 futures fell 0.2%

  • Nasdaq 100 futures fell 0.4%

  • Dow Jones Industrial Average futures fell 0.3%

  • MSCI Asia Pacific fell 1.3%

  • MSCI Emerging Markets fell 1.5%

currency

  • The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was little changed

  • The euro fell 0.1% to $1.0882

  • The Japanese yen was slightly lower at 157.38 per dollar

  • The offshore yuan was little changed at 7.2806 per dollar

  • The British pound fell 0.1% to $1.2927

Cryptocurrencies

  • Bitcoin fell 0.3% to $63,632.26

  • Ether fell 0.9% to $3,382.05

Bindings

  • The 10-year bond yield was little changed at 4.20%

  • Germany’s 10-year yield was little changed at 2.43%

  • Britain’s 10-year yield rose two basis points to 4.08%

Goods

  • Brent crude was down 0.3% at $84.88 a barrel

  • Spot gold fell 1% to $2,420.48 an ounce

This story was created with help from Bloomberg Automation.

–With help from Zhu Lin, John Cheng, Winnie Hsu and Divya Patil.

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©2024 Bloomberg LP

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