Global shares slumped to a two-month low on Friday as investors’ hopes of a Federal Reserve interest rate pause in September continue to fade and China’s banking sector continues to waver. The MSCI All Country stock index declined by 0.3%, its lowest level since June. The global index has slipped 5.85% since the start of August but remains 10.2% higher for the year.
U.S. bonds cooled slightly but remained near their 16-year highs. Ten-year U.S. Treasury yields were down 7 basis points to 4.2329% after surging almost 30 basis points this month alone to reach a 10-month peak of 4.3280%; hovering near its highest level since 2007. Britain’s 10-year bond yield surged to its highest level since 2008 at around 4.76%.
In Asia, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index declined by 2% to its biggest weekly losses in two months while Chinese blue-chip shares fell by 1.2%. Japan’s Nikkei declined by 0.5%, putting it on track to a weekly loss of 3.1%.