A surprisingly strong payrolls report in the United States yesterday failed to entice investors into stocks even as equities appeared oversold globally following a near five per cent drop to start the year.
Brent crude oil extended its weekly slide to more than 10 per cent, pressured by unrelenting oversupply and a bleak demand outlook.
US crude was on track to post its largest weekly drop in more than a year.
Stocks had opened higher on Wall Street after data showed the economy created many more jobs than expected in December and previous months were revised higher.
But the S&P 500 hit its session high, up 0.9 per cent on the day, within five minutes of the open and steadily lost ground since.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 31.61 points, or 0.19 per cent, to 16,482.49, the S&P 500 lost 4.25 points, or 0.22 per cent, to 1,938.84 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 10.64 points, or 0.23 per cent, to 4,678.79.
Stocks and other risk assets got support from Asian markets after China nudged the yuan higher for the first time in nine days, easing fears that it had lost control of the currency, and as the Chinese stock benchmark rose two per cent.
Europe initially followed suit, but the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index was down 1.3 per cent going into the close of trading.
MSCI’s broadest gauge of stocks globally was little changed on the day and on track to fall 5.5 per cent this week, the most since September 2011.
After reaching a 12-year low on Thursday, Brent crude rose as much as 2.9 per cent but was last down 2.4 per cent on the day at $32.95 per barrel.
West Texas Intermediate fell 1.4 per cent to $32.79 a barrel after gaining more than three per cent earlier.
US Treasury yields were little changed following an initial yield rise after the bumper jobs data, which was quelled by a lack of wage gains. Continued safety bids also kept yields from climbing.
US 10-year Treasury notes were up 5/32 in price to yield 2.1367 per cent yesterday, from 2.153 per cent late Thursday.
The dollar climbed on measures taken by China to ease this week’s market turmoil and on the payrolls data in the United States, but gains were limited by worries over whether Beijing has done enough to calm its battered stock market.
The euro was down 0.3 per cent against the dollar at $1.09, while the greenback was little changed versus the yen at 117.61.
Spot gold fell for the first time this week but was on track to post its largest weekly per centage gain since August.