Global markets sink amid concerns about US economic worries

Global markets fell on Tuesday amid economic concerns in the United States in advance of a key jobs report that is expected to affect how fast the Federal Reserve cuts rates.
Euronext Dublin finished down 1 per cent, dragged into the red by some of its bigger hitters.
Among the financial names, AIB and Bank of Ireland were down 2.4 per cent and 2.1 per cent respectively at close of business.
Insulation specialist Kingspan, one of the biggest companies left on the Iseq following the exits of multinational giants CRH and Flutter, sank 3 per cent over the day.
On the positive side, dairy giant Kerry Group was one of the standout performers on the day, finishing up 0.7 per cent, while budget airline Ryanair climbed 0.9 per cent.
The UK’s benchmark FTSE 100 tumbled to its lowest levels in over a week, hurt by a steep sell-off in commodity-linked stocks over lower metal and crude prices.
It ended 0.8 per cent lower in what was its biggest one-day decline in two weeks. The domestically focused mid-cap FTSE 250 also lost 0.8 per cent, touching its lowest levels in three weeks.
The personal care, drug and grocery stores index led gains with a 1 per cent jump, helped by a 3.1 per cent rise in online supermarket and technology group Ocado, while retailer Tesco added 1.6 per cent on a price target upgrade from UBS.
Watches Of Switzerland Group jumped 6.3 per cent after the company said it’s on track to deliver its full-year forecast, taking the personal goods index higher by 0.4 per cent.
Rolls-Royce rose 1.7 per cent after Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific Airways noted that three of the 48 British engine supplier’s planes under inspection went through successful repairs and all of the jets were expected to resume operation by Saturday.
European values fell in their worst session in nearly a month. The pan-European Stoxx 600 index dropped 1 per cent, with Germany’s Dax slipping 0.9 per cent from record highs touched earlier in the session.
Stocks in France, Spain and Italy dropped between 0.9 per cent and 1.3 per cent. Declines began early in the session and increased after US manufacturing data pointed to still-subdued factory activity, increasing jitters over the strength of the world’s largest economy.
All the big European indexes notched their worst session since the global equity sell-off in early August that was also sparked by resurgent worries about a US recession.
Europe’s energy and basic resources sectors led declines, down 2.8 per cent and 3.3 per cent respectively, with the resource sector seeing its worst day since October 2023.
Wall Street’s main indexes fell over 1 per cent as investors assessed subdued factory activity data in advance of a slew of labour market reports due through the week that could influence the extent of monetary policy easing by the Federal Reserve.
The S&P 500 industrials sector fell more than 1.6 per cent, with stocks such as Caterpillar and 3M weighing on the blue-chip Dow as well.
Megacaps, the forerunners of this year’s rally, tumbled, with Nvidia falling 7.3 per cent and Microsoft losing 1.2 per cent, while a drop in chip stocks also dragged the Philadelphia SE Semiconductor index down by 5.7 per cent.
The broader tech sector that has jumped more than 22 per cent year-to-date led sectoral declines with a 3.3 per cent drop.
Among others, Tesla added 0.6 per cent after a report noted it plans to produce a six-seat variant of its Model Y car in China from late 2025.
Boeing lost 8.1 per cent after Wells Fargo downgraded the planemaker’s shares to “underweight” from “equal weight”.
Seven of the 11 S&P 500 sectors traded lower. However, defensives such as consumer staples, healthcare and utilities had marginal gains. — Additional reporting: Agencies