An ugly Friday for global equities has U.S. stock-index futures pointing to a sharply lower start for Wall Street, as investors eye a potential retest of crucial support on the price charts at the June lows.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA,
in fact, is in danger of trading below its June 17 closing low at 29,888.78, leaving the blue-chip gauge not far off the threshold for entering a bear market. A finish at or below 29,439.72 would mark a 20% fall from the DJIA’s record close of 36,799.65 set on Jan. 4, which would meet the widely used definition of a bear market.
The big question, however, remains around the broader S&P 500 index
SPX,
and the potential for the more closely followed large-cap benchmark to take out its June 16 closing low at 3,666.67 or its June intraday low just below 3,637. The S&P 500 ended Thursday at 3,757.99, up 2.5% from the June 16 closing low.
Global equities fell sharply Friday, with U.S. stock futures pointing to steep losses on Wall Street when the market opens. The Federal Reserve earlier this week delivered another outsize interest rate hike and signaled it would drive rates higher than market participants had previously anticipated. A number of other global central banks also delivered rate increases this week, underlining investor worries about the economic outlook.
