BLBG:Stocks Fall on French Rating Concern, Goldman Sachs Loss; Commodities Drop
European stocks and U.S. index futures fell as Moody’s Investors Service signaled that France’s Aaa rating is at risk and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. reported a bigger-than-forecast loss. French bonds dropped. Commodities slid as China’s economic growth slowed.
The MSCI All-Country World Index dropped 1.1 percent at 7:45 a.m. in New York. Standard & Poor’s 500 Index futures slipped 0.5 percent. The yield on the French two-year note rose as much as 20 basis points, the biggest jump since May 20. The extra yield investors demand to hold French 10-year bonds instead of benchmark German bunds surpassed 100 basis points for the first time since the euro was introduced. The euro weakened 0.5 percent versus the dollar. Copper fell 3 percent.
The European debt crisis has left France with “less room for maneuver in terms of stretching its balance sheet than it had in 2008,” Moody’s said yesterday. U.S. equity futures extended declines after Goldman Sachs reported its second quarterly loss in 12 years as a public company after the value of its investments decreased. China’s economy expanded 9.1 percent last quarter, trailing the 9.3 percent forecast in a Bloomberg News survey.
To contact the reporters on this story: Claudia Carpenter in London at ccarpenter2@bloomberg.net; Michael P. Regan in New York at mregan12@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Nick Baker at nbaker7@bloomberg.net