Global Stocks Head for Third Weekly Loss Amid War: Markets Wrap
(Bloomberg) — Global equities headed for a third straight weekly drop, the longest streak in a year, as investors weighed efforts by the US and Israel to ease concerns over the Iran war.
The MSCI All Country World Index has lost 0.4% so far this week. It was little changed on Friday as markets turned choppy ahead of the weekend. S&P 500 futures fluctuated as Wall Street traders braced for an unusually large tally of options expiring on Friday. European contracts climbed 0.7% after a selloff on Thursday — when strikes on energy assets in the Middle East stoked fears of a prolonged economic impact from the conflict.
Brent crude fell from its highest closing level since July 2022 to trade around $108 per barrel. Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the nation will no longer target energy infrastructure, and added that the war will end a lot faster than people think as Iran is no longer able to enrich uranium or manufacture ballistic missiles.
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump told reporters he’s “not putting troops anywhere” when asked about the possibility of deploying ground forces.
“The long shadow of the energy crisis is far from lifted,” said Hebe Chen, a senior market analyst at Vantage Global Prime in Sydney. “It would be naive to call this anything more than a fragile exhale.”
Traders are parsing every geopolitical headline as the conflict has upended the energy supply chain — causing prices of gasoline and jet fuel to surge and spurring cooking gas shortages in countries like India. The International Energy Agency has called the war the biggest supply disruption in the history of the oil market.
Kuwait on Friday shut down several units at the Al Ahmadi Refinery after multiple drone attacks caused a fire, according to state-run Kuna. Bahrain said it extinguished a fire in a company warehouse caused by Iranian attacks.
In Asia, the regional stock benchmark was down 0.4% on Friday. Trading was thin on account of holidays in Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines. Japanese markets were also shut, meaning there was no cash trading in Treasuries during Asian hours.
A slump in shares of heavyweight Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. weighed on the MSCI Asia Pacific Index Friday. The Chinese tech giant’s stock lost as much as 6.7% in Hong Kong after it reported sales that missed estimates, dragged by sluggish growth in its core e-commerce business.
Dollar, Bonds
Elsewhere in markets, a gauge of the dollar rose 0.2% on Friday after slipping 0.7% in the last session. India’s rupee weakened past 93 per dollar to a fresh record low.
The dollar is likely to extend its gains into the weekend, according to AT Global Markets. “There’s still a war raging in the Middle East and the Fed were hawkish on Wednesday,” said Nick Twidale, chief market analyst at the firm.
The risk of a global inflation shock has complicated the policy outlook for global central banks. Investors in bond markets around the world are rushing to bet on higher interest rates amid the jump in energy prices.
Australia’s benchmark bond yields climbed to the highest level in almost 15 years on Friday, while New Zealand’s two-year yields hit the highest in about a year.
The European Central Bank will need to consider hiking interest rates as soon as next month if price pressures build further due to the Iran war, according to Governing Council member Joachim Nagel. On Thursday, UK’s two-year rate jumped 31 basis points to 4.40% after the Bank of England said it “stands ready” to act to prevent inflation from accelerating.
As the war reduces prospects for a US interest-rate cut in the near term, gold is heading for the biggest weekly loss in six years. The precious metal — widely viewed as a haven — has dropped every week since the US and Israel attacked Iran last month.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent noted the US is looking to remove sanctions that it has long imposed on Iranian oil in an effort to lower surging energy prices. The White House doesn’t plan to ban the export of oil and gas, an official said Thursday.
“Both US and Israel and some other countries are trying to manage risks as war’s impact via energy is broadening,” said Anna Wu, a cross asset strategist at Van Eck Associates Corp. in Sydney. “The narrative from the US side looks slightly more promising, but the consensus changes by the day.”
Corporate Highlights:
Unwilling to cede control over New World Development Co., Hong Kong’s billionaire Cheng family is now betting on the revival of the city’s property market and mulling options like a public share sale to meet the embattled developer’s debt obligations. Micron Technology Inc. warned that it will need to spend heavily on production to meet burgeoning demand, overshadowing a generally upbeat forecast. Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. aims to quintuple cloud and AI revenue to $100 billion annually in five years. Xiaomi Corp.’s Hong Kong-listed shares fell in Hong Kong trading amid concern the company’s freshly updated electric vehicle will hit profitability after an only minor price increase. Standard Chartered Plc and BSI Bank Ltd. failed in their bids to be part of winding-up applications linked to Malaysian sovereign wealth fund 1Malaysia Development Bhd. in Singapore’s High Court. A co-founder of Super Micro Computer Inc. was charged in New York with conspiring to illegally divert billions of dollars in artificial intelligence technology to China. One of Eli Lilly & Co.’s most highly anticipated experimental medicines helped diabetic patients lose more weight than any drug currently on the market. Uber Technologies Inc. plans to invest as much as $1.25 billion in Rivian Automotive Inc. to help launch a robotaxi fleet that will be available in the US, Canada and Europe over the next five years. Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
S&P 500 futures fell 0.1% as of 7 a.m. London time Nasdaq 100 futures fell 0.3% Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were little changed The MSCI Asia Pacific Index fell 0.4% The MSCI Emerging Markets Index fell 0.5% Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 1.3% The Shanghai Composite fell 1.2% Euro Stoxx 50 futures rose 0.5% Currencies
The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.2% The euro fell 0.3% to $1.1558 The Japanese yen fell 0.5% to 158.44 per dollar The offshore yuan fell 0.2% to 6.8946 per dollar The British pound fell 0.2% to $1.3402 Cryptocurrencies
Bitcoin fell 0.1% to $70,408.29 Ether fell 0.6% to $2,132.9 Bonds
Germany’s 10-year yield advanced two basis points to 2.96% Britain’s 10-year yield advanced 11 basis points to 4.84% Australia’s 10-year yield advanced five basis points to 5.02% Commodities
West Texas Intermediate crude fell 1.1% to $94.53 a barrel Spot gold rose 0.5% to $4,672.26 an ounce This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
–With assistance from Richard Henderson, Abhishek Vishnoi, David Finnerty, Toby Alder and Matthew Burgess.
©2026 Bloomberg L.P.
