't zal maar gebeuren schreef op 8 december 2015 16:54:
By Riva Gold And Saumya Vaishampayan
The recent rout in commodity prices continued to hit shares of energy and mining companies Tuesday, weighing on major indexes around the globe.
Worries about oversupply and waning demand for a range of commodities have sent prices sharply lower, with benchmark iron ore prices dropping to fresh decade lows and oil trading at a near seven-year low.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 226 points, or 1.3%, to 17503. The S&P lost 1.1% and the Nasdaq Composite fell 1%.
Exxon Mobil and Chevron were major decliners in the Dow industrials, while a 2% drop in the S&P 500's energy sector outpaced losses elsewhere in the index. A decline in energy shares also sent major U.S. indexes down on Monday.
The Stoxx Europe 600 tumbled 1.8%.
Brent crude, the global benchmark, briefly fell below $40 a barrel for the first time since 2009. U.S. crude oil slipped 0.7% to $37.39 a barrel, on track for the third straight day of declines after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries' decision to keep output high.
With most commodities analysts predicting further weakness in oil and metal markets, stocks and bonds tied to these sectors are expected to remain under pressure.
"Are we going to hit the bottom [for commodity prices and mining shares] or is this a bottomless pit? There's just this relentless disconnect between supply and demand," said Jeremy Batstone-Carr, chief economist and strategist at London-based brokerage and wealth manager Charles Stanley.
Some of Europe's biggest miners were hammered Tuesday, with Glencore down 6.8%, Anglo American slumping 11% and Rio Tinto slipping 7.4%. In the U.S., Freeport-McMoRan lost 6.6%.
Anglo American on Tuesday cut 85,000 jobs and suspended its dividend payments, part of its plan to weather weak commodity markets.
Anglo's dividend suspension drove much of its stock decline on Tuesday, said Rebecca O'Keeffe, head of investment at U.K. brokerage Interactive Investor. "In a low yield environment, an awful lot of income investors are highly reliant on dividend payments, so you tend to get a much more adverse reaction when companies actually elect to suspend their dividends," she said.
Pipeline firm Kinder Morgan said Friday it would review its dividend policy, sparking fears of similar moves by hard-hit commodity companies. Investors have flocked to stocks that pay out dividends in recent years as central banks have held interest rates low.
Asian indexes also suffered as Monday's drop in oil prices hit energy companies and raw materials producers. The Shanghai Composite Index fell 1.9%, Japan's Nikkei Stock Average fell 1% and Australia's mining-heavy S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.9%.
Gold slipped 0.2% to $1072.70 an ounce.
Investors also continued to focus on monetary policy. While the European Central Bank moved to further ease policy on Thursday, a strong jobs report on Friday appeared to have cleared the way for The Federal Reserve to raise interest rates at its Dec. 15-16 meeting.
Ultralow interest rates have boosted equity markets in recent years, but stocks gained after the jobs report as investors appeared to be reassured by a sign of confidence in the U.S. economy and clarity over the Fed's plans.
"If they don't raise rates [in December], I think markets will worry 'What does the Fed see that we don't see?'" said Andrew Parry, head of equities at Hermès Investment Management, which oversees GBP29.5 billion ($44.42 billion) in assets. While he expects the Fed to raise rates in December, he believes the path ahead for U.S. rates is far from clear. "Can the Fed really normalize [monetary policy] when the rest of the world feels things are abnormal?"
Tommy Stubbington contributed to this article.
Write to Riva Gold at
riva.gold@wsj.com and Saumya Vaishampayan at
saumya.vaishampayan@wsj.com(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 08, 2015 10:50 ET (15:50 GMT)
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