Global stocks tumble on central banks, North Korea worries

Global stocks stumbled Thursday on mounting worries about tightening monetary policy and a diplomatic standoff between North Korea and the West.

Equity markets retreated in Europe, Asia and the United States, with some of the sharpest declines coming on Wall Street, where energy, health and industrial sectors all lost at least one percent.

Analysts attributed the pullback in part to unease over recent signaling by the European Central Bank and other central banks that a period of aggressive monetary stimulus will end soon.

"This is a continuation of what started a week ago or so with concerns that the ECB may start to taper its quantitative easing purchases and that other central banks around the world, including the Bank of England, the Bank of Canada and the Fed could start to move in a synchronized way to be on the path to tighter policies," said Karl Haeling of LBBW.

Investors also were uneasy as a G20 summit was set to kick off in Germany amid rancorous protests and unease over North Korea. President Donald Trump said the US was weighing a "pretty severe" response to North Korea following a test launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile, while Beijing called for a scaling down of rhetoric.

Stock markets were pressured throughout the session. After an easing throughout the day, Paris ended the session 0.5 percent lower, Frankfurt shed 0.6 percent and London was down by 0.4 percent.

In the US, the S&P 500 ended down 0.9 percent.

Analysts were looking ahead to Friday's key US jobs report. US private-sector employers added 158,000 jobs in June, below expectations, according to payrolls firm ADP.

Oil prices pushed modestly higher after a US inventory report showed lower supplies of oil and gasoline. But gains by the commodity were tempered by data showing higher US production.

Among individual stocks, General Electric slumped 3.8 percent after JPMorgan Chase cut its price target on expectations of weak profit growth from key industrial divisions.

"We don't see a quick or easy fix to the current predicament," JPMorgan said in a note.

Tesla Motors fell sharply for the third straight session, this time losing 5.6 percent as it ceded its crown as biggest US carmaker by market capitalization to General Motors.

Tesla's failure to garner the top crash test rating added to worries about its profit outlook after it reported lower-than-expected car deliveries earlier this week.

- Key figures around 2045 GMT -

New York - DOW: DOWN 0.7 percent at 21,320.04 (close)

New York - S&P 500: DOWN 0.9 percent at 2,409.75 (close)

New York - Nasdaq: DOWN 1.0 percent at 6,089.46 (close)

London - FTSE 100: DOWN 0.4 percent at 7,337.28 (close)

Frankfurt - DAX 30: DOWN 0.6 percent at 12,381.25 (close)

Paris - CAC 40: DOWN 0.5 percent at 5,152.40 (close)

EURO STOXX 50: DOWN 0.9 percent at 3,462.06 (close)

Tokyo - Nikkei 225: DOWN 0.4 percent at 19,994.06 (close)

Hong Kong - Hang Seng: DOWN 0.2 percent at 25,465.22 (close)

Shanghai - Composite: UP 0.2 percent at 3,212.44 (close)

Euro/dollar: UP at $1.1421 from $1.1343

Pound/dollar: UP at $1.2971 from $1.2927

Dollar/yen: DOWN at 113.18 yen from 113.21 yen

Oil - Brent North Sea: UP 32 cents at $48.11 per barrel

Oil - West Texas Intermediate: UP 39 cents at $45.52 per barrel

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Source: AFP