Global stocks were on track to post their biggest weekly decline since the height of the euro zone crisis on Friday, after a late slump on Wall Street triggered another dramatic sell-off.
The MSCI’s broadest index of global shares — which captures worldwide equity returns in 23 developed and 24 emerging markets— slipped 6.2 percent over the past week. And, as long as the index is still more than 6.1 percent lower when U.S. markets close later on Friday, will mean it falls to its worst weekly loss since September 2011.
Asian stocks continued a market rout on Friday, as Chinese equities dived 4 percent. Both of Beijing’s major indexes posted their largest single-day losses since February 2016. Meanwhile, in Europe, stocks were mostly trading lower on Friday morning, as investors monitored the release of fresh corporate news while keeping an eye on market turbulence across the world.
Many market watchers believe the market turmoil over the past week is reflective of a long overdue pullback after substantial gains in 2017 and early 2018. The recent selling is also thought to have been exacerbated by expectations of higher U.S. interest rates.
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