Volatility is resurfacing as a turbulent week for world markets and politics was met on Friday with a global tech outage that’s compounded a recoil in mega-cap shares, already hit by fears of new chipmaker curbs and underwhelming earnings guidance.
Major U.S. airlines ordered ground stops on Friday citing communications issues, while other carriers, media companies, banks and telecoms firms around the world also reported that system outages were disrupting their operations.
The TSX Composite Index dipped 124.41 points to 22,726.76.
The Canadian dollar slipped 0.06 cents to 72.92 cents U.S.
September futures were down 0.4% Friday.
On the economic beat, Statistics Canada says retail sales decreased 0.8% to $66.1 billion in May. Sales were down in eight of nine subsectors, led by decreases at food and beverage retailers.,
The industrial product price index was unchanged in June and increased 2.8% year over year. The raw material price index declined 1.4% month over month in June and was up 7.5% year over year.
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange sank 9.32 points, or 1.6%, Thursday to 578.85.
ON WALLSTREET
Stock futures were quiet on Friday as Wall Street looked to stabilize after a slide for equities.
Futures for the Dow Jones Industrials dropped 58 points, or 0.2%, to 41,439.
Futures for the S&P 500 hiked 7.75 points, or 0.1%, at 5,646.75.
Futures for the NASDAQ Composite spiked 82.5 points, or 0.4% to 20,080.
Despite Thursday’s selloff, a market rotation still appears to be theme of the week. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite are down 1.26% and 2.87%, respectively. On the other hand, the Dow is up 1.66%.
CrowdStrike tumbled more than 10% following a major information technology outage that impacted business around the world. The New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ both said trading did not appear impacted.
Investors will also be keeping an eye on the political sphere, where Donald Trump is ramping up his campaign as the Republican National Convention draws to a close and President Joe Biden is under pressure from fellow Democrats to bow out of the race.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 dropped 0.2% Friday, while in Hong Kong, the Hang Seng 2%.
Oil prices dipped 19 cents to $82.63 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices faltered $46.50 to $2,409.90.