Global equity prices and the dollar fell sharply yesterday as investors sought safe havens amid mounting uncertainty about next week’s US presidential election.
Treasuries were steady, erasing earlier weakness, as falling stocks increased demand for bonds, while oil prices fell to one-month lows.
MSCI’s 47-country ‘All World’ index was down 0.54 per cent, dragged down by weakness on Wall Street.
The S&P 500 dipped to near a four-month low as investors appeared to fret about the outcome of the US presidential election.
“I think that it’s a combination of uncertainty over the impact of the election and the uncertainty of what higher interest rates mean for segments of the market,” said Rick Meckler, president of investment firm LibertyView Capital Management in Jersey City, New Jersey.
“That combination has just made investors a little bit more reluctant to hold stocks here,” he said.
Democrat Hillary Clinton held a five-percentage-point lead over Republican Donald Trump, according to a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll released on Monday, down only slightly since the FBI said last week it was reviewing new e-mails in its investigation of Clinton ahead of the November 8 election.
But a poll by ABC News showed Trump leading by one point and the Los Angeles Times put the Republican candidate more than two points ahead.
“The market was very certain that Hillary Clinton was going to win the election, and to the extent that doubts creep into that, it is not good for the stock market,” said Stephen Massocca, chief investment officer at Wedbush Equity Management LLC in San Francisco.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 158.06 points, or 0.87 per cent, to 17,984.36, the S&P 500 lost 21.87 points, or 1.03 per cent, to 2,104.28 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 57.57 points, or 1.11 per cent, to 5,131.57.
European shares fell for the seventh straight session. Standard Chartered shares fell more than five per cent after underwhelming results.
Europe’s broad FTSEurofirst 300 index closed down one per cent at 1,324.54.
The US dollar hit its lowest level in nearly three weeks against the euro on US political uncertainty, while the Mexican peso hit a more than three-week low on positioning for a potential victory for Trump.