NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — U.S. stocks were headed for another day of losses Friday, as worries of a global slowdown and Europe’s debt crisis sparked a second sell-off in global markets.
Dow Jones industrial average, S&P 500 and Nasdaq futures fell between 1.5% and 2% ahead of the opening bell. Stock futures indicate the possible direction of the markets when they open at 9:30 a.m. ET.
Wall Street got socked on Thursday, as renewed concerns about the U.S. and global economies sent major indexes plunging, pushed gold to a new high and U.S. Treasury bond yields to a record low.
Fears continued to build Friday, sending global markets reeling for a second straight session, and they’re likely to remain at the forefront.
“Global markets remain rattled by a crisis that is fast morphing into a global banking and economic crisis on one side, and a very piecemeal policy approach to contain risks on the other,” said Marc Chandler, global head of currency strategy at Brown Brothers Harriman.
A day after Morgan Stanley cut global growth forecasts and said the United States and Europe are “dangerously close to a recession,” Deutsche Bank downgraded its growth outlook for China.
The German investment bank said a slowdown or recession in the U.S. or European economies would be “the single most important shock to the Chinese economy,” and could slow the nation’s GDP growth to 7%.
In 2010, China’s economy grew at a robust rate above 10%, and is forecast to grow more than 9% in 2011.
As they fled stocks, investors continued to seek shelter in traditional safe havens, including gold. The price of gold for December delivery jumped as much as $59.40 Friday, to bolt to a fresh intraday record of $1,881.40 an ounce before pulling back to about $1,865.
World markets: European stocks were deep in the red in morning trading. Britain’s FTSE 100 slumped 2.4%, the DAX in Germany dropped 3.9% and France’s CAC 40 fell 3%.
It was another tough day for Asian markets. Japan’s Nikkei lost 2.5%, the Hang Seng in Hong Kong tumbled 3.1% and the Shanghai Composite fell 1%.
Companies: Late Thursday, Hewlett-Packard said it is looking to spin off its industry-leading but struggling personal computer business. HP also killed off the TouchPad tablet it launched last month, as well as its webOS smartphone line.
The company also said it has agreed to buy British software developer Autonomy for roughly $10.2 billion in cash. Shares of HP sank 12% in premarket trading.
Bank of America’s stock dipped 2.3% in early trading, after the company announced it is cutting 3,500 jobs, in addition to the 2,500 jobs the bank eliminated earlier this year.
Currencies and commodities: The dollar firmed against the euro and British pound, and was flat versus the Japanese yen.
Oil for September delivery slipped $1.50 to $80.88 a barrel, having fallen as low as $79.17 earlier in the session.
Bonds: The price on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury fell slightly, pushing the yield up to 2.09% from 2.08% late Thursday.
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