Global shares slide and US futures and dollar drop after Moody's
downgrade of US credit rating
[May 19, 2025] By
JIANG JUNZHE
HONG KONG (AP) — Global shares fell Monday and U.S. futures and the
dollar also weakened after Moody’s Ratings downgraded the sovereign
credit rating for the United States because of its failure to stem a
rising tide of debt.
The future for the S&P 500 lost 1.2% while that for the Dow Jones
Industrial Average fell 0.8%. The U.S. dollar slipped to 144.92 Japanese
yen from 145.65 yen. The euro advanced to $1.1254 from $1.1183.
The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury was at about 4.54%, up from 4.44%
late Friday.
In Europe, Germany’s DAX retreated 0.1% to 23,733.96 while the CAC 40 in
Paris lost 0.5% to 7,851.46.
Britain's FTSE 100 declined 0.5% to 8,643.23.
Chinese markets fell after the government said retail sales rose 5.1% in
April from a year earlier, less than expected. Growth in industrial
output slowed to 6.1% year-on-year from 7.7% in March.
That could mean rising inventories if production outpaces demand even
more than it already does. But it also may reflect some of the shipping
boom before some of U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs on Chinese
goods took effect.
“After an improvement in March, China’s economy looks to have slowed
again last month, with firms and households turning more cautious due to
the trade war,” Julian Evans-Pritchard of Capital Economics said in a
report.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng lost 0.1% to 23,332.72 and the Shanghai Composite
Index was nearly unchanged at 3,367.58.
E-commerce giant Alibaba's shares in Hong Kong skidded 3.4% following a
report that U.S. officials are scrutinizing a potential Apple-Alibaba
deal to integrate AI features into iPhones in China.
Tokyo's Nikkei 225 gave up 0.7% to 37,498.63 while the Kospi in Seoul
dropped 0.9% to 2,603.43.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.6% to 8,295.10.
Taiwan's Taiex was 1.5% lower.
In oil trading early Monday, U.S. benchmark crude oil lost 47 cents to
$61.50 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, gave up 50
cents to $64.91 per barrel.
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A person walks near an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei
index at a securities firm Monday, May 19, 2025, in Tokyo. (AP
Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
 Wall Street cruised to a strong
finish last week as U.S. stocks glided closer to the all-time high
they set just a few months earlier, though it may feel like an
economic era ago.
The S&P 500 rose 0.7%. It has rallied to within 3% of its record set
in February after it briefly dropped roughly 20% below it last
month.
Gains have been driven by hopes that Trump will lower his tariffs
against other countries after reaching trade deals with them.
The Dow industrials added 0.8% and the Nasdaq composite climbed
0.5%.
Trump’s trade war sent financial markets reeling because they could
slow the economy and drive it into a recession, while also pushing
inflation higher.
This week featured some encouraging news on each of those fronts.
The United States and China announced a 90-day stand-down in most of
their punishing tariffs against each other, while a couple of
reports on inflation in the United States came in better than
economists expected.
That uncertainty has been hitting U.S. households and businesses,
raising worries that they may freeze their spending and long-term
plans. The latest reading in a survey of U.S. consumers by the
University of Michigan showed sentiment soured again in May, though
the pace of decline wasn’t as bad as in prior months.
Charter Communications rose 1.8% after it said Friday that it has
agreed to merge with Cox Communications in a deal that would combine
two of the country’s largest cable companies.
Hope remains that this week’s better-than-expected signals on
inflation could give the Federal Reserve more leeway to cut interest
rates later this year if high tariffs drag down the U.S. economy.
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