US equities heading for worst week since selloff began

by Andre Janse van Vuuren and Anand Krishnamoorthy

US stocks are on track for their worst week in more than a month as a stunning rebound in equities stalled amid growing concerns over America’s fiscal outlook.

S&P 500 contracts edged higher on Friday after three days of losses. The gauge remain on course for its worst weekly performance since the selloff following US President Donald Trump’s tariffs announcements at the beginning of April. The dollar fell 0.4% against a basket of currencies. Treasuries gained, with the 10-year yield dropping two basis points to 4.51%.

European stocks rose 0.3%, while a gauge for Asian equities is on track for a sixth straight week of gains.

Bond markets this week have reflected investors’ concerns about ballooning US debt and deficits, which was amplified after Moody’s Ratings downgraded the nation’s top credit rating last week. Rising yields, particularly on longer-dated instruments, intensified investor concerns about the economic outlook amid of backdrop of elevated borrowing costs and tariff-induced uncertainty.

It’s been “a bit of a roller coaster with policy firmly in the driving seat,” Bettina Mazzochi-Mallarme, co-head for EMEA Wealth at BlackRock International, told Bloomberg TV. “There is a lot of uncertainty and unpredictability both in fixed income and in equity markets. We do not think that uncertainty ends here.”

On Friday, the dollar retreated against all of its Group-of-10 peers, underlining continued concerns over the US’s fiscal health and waning appetite for American assets. Trump’s tax bill, a sprawling multi-trillion dollar package that would avert a year-end tax increase at the expense of adding to the US debt burden, is now heading for the Senate.

“The current market environment is still geared toward fading dollar rallies, given ongoing concern over the US economic outlook from tariffs and now geopolitical risks and fiscal concerns,” said Felix Ryan, an analyst at ANZ Banking Group in Sydney.

In commodities, gold headed for the biggest weekly gain in more than a month. Oil headed for its first weekly decline in three, as OPEC+ weighed another bumper production increase that could add supplies into a market already expected to face a glut.

Some of the main moves in markets:

Stocks

• The Stoxx Europe 600 rose 0.3% as of 8:29 a.m. London time
• S&P 500 futures rose 0.2%
• Nasdaq 100 futures rose 0.1%
• Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.2%
• The MSCI Asia Pacific Index rose 0.6%
• The MSCI Emerging Markets Index rose 0.4%

Currencies

• The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.4%
• The euro rose 0.5% to $1.1333
• The Japanese yen rose 0.5% to 143.35 per dollar
• The offshore yuan rose 0.2% to 7.1932 per dollar
• The British pound rose 0.4% to $1.3475

Cryptocurrencies

• Bitcoin fell 0.3% to $110,798.65
• Ether rose 1% to $2,668.42

Bonds

• The yield on 10-year Treasuries declined two basis points to 4.51%
• Germany’s 10-year yield declined three basis points to 2.61%
• Britain’s 10-year yield declined two basis points to 4.73%

Commodities

• Brent crude fell 0.6% to $64.03 a barrel
• Spot gold rose 1.1% to $3,330.25 an ounce

This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.

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