US Stock market to Open Lower as Global Selloff Continues
US stock index futures pointed to a slightly lower open on Wall Street on Friday following a traumatic day across global stock markets as investors sold off over fears the European debt crisis was spreading to Spain and Italy and economic data out of the US pointed to a slowdown in growth in the world’s largest economy.
US Investors are waiting on non-farm payroll data due out at 08:30am in New York, which analysts in a Reuters poll said they expected to show the number of jobs created increased by 85,000 for July compared with 18,000 for June. There was a slightly more optimistic consensus analyst estimate on briefing.com of 100,000 jobs added to the US economy.However, the proportion of people out of work in the US was expected to remain unchanged for July from June at 9.2 percent.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average suffered its worst one day fall in nearly three years on Thursday, falling 4.5 percent, or 500 points, at the close. Earlier in the day markets across Europe fell as fears over the European debt crisis persisted. In the UK the FTSE 100 index closed the day down 3.4 percent suffering its worst one day fall since March 2009, In Germany the DAX fell by more than 3 percent while in Spain and France markets fell over 4 percent. The Italian stock market fell more than 5 percent before being suspended at the close.
The FTSE, the DAX, and the CAC 40 were all more than 2 percent lower at the open.Banks suffered heavy losses with the UK’s Lloyd’s Banking Group [LLOY-LN 35.425 
0.435 (+1.24%) 
] falling 10.1 percent on the back of second quarter losses of £3.5 billion related to payment protection mis-selling claims. Meanwhile Italian bank Unicredit [UNCIF 2.67 --- UNCH ], one of Italy’s largest banks saw more than 9 percent wiped off its share price before the Milan market was suspended. Italian banks rebounded in mid-morning trade.
Italian 10-year government bond yields climbed above their Spanish equivalent while the cost of insuring the country’ debt against default climbed on Friday, as Italy was hammered by market concerns that the contagion of the euro zone’s debt crisis could not be contained.Brent crude oil [LCOCV1 108.22 0.97 (+0.9%) ] also tumbled to $85 a barrel early on Friday as it headed for a 12 percent weekly fall. Although news of an explosion at an oil pipeline in Iran helped to push the price back up over $100 a barrel.
Asian markets continued the sell off with the benchmark Nikkei average [.N225 9299.88 
-359.30 (-3.72%) ] falling fell 3.7 percent to 9,305.04, while the broader Topix dropped 3.3 percent to 809.32.China and Japan called for global cooperation on Friday after a financial market rout signalled fear that Europe’s debt crisis could spin out of control and the U.S. economy may slide into another recession.
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