Both the Dow .DJI and the S&P 500 .SPX
had their worst five-day starts in history last week, and the corporate
news flow is unlikely to get any cheerier with the coming results
season expected to be a tough one.
S&P
500 earnings are forecast to have dropped 4.2 percent in the fourth
quarter, a second straight quarterly decline led by the hard-hit energy
and materials sectors.
The pain in stocks and worries over China even outweighed the positive impact of December's upbeat U.S. payrolls report and burnished the appeal of higher-rated government bonds.
Yields on 3-, 7-, and 10-year U.S. Treasuries all had their biggest weekly declines since early October last year, while five-year yields dropped by the most since Sept. 2013.
The gains continued on Monday with U.S. 10-year Treasury futures TYc1 up 3 ticks, while Fed fund futures <0#FF:> were pricing in a slightly shallower upward path for rates.
In currency markets, the main early news was the yen which is often favored in times of stress as Japan remains the world's largest creditor nation.
The dollar initially fell half a yen to a near five-five month low of 116.70 yen JPY=, before steadying around 117.22.
Dealers said Japanese investors seemed to be bailing out of long positions in the South African rand by selling rand for dollars and then those dollars for yen.
That saw the dollar surge as much as 10.3 percent at one stage to 17.9950 rand ZAR=D3, before tracking back to 16.6780. That was still up from 16.3150 late on Friday.
The euro started firmer but soon softened to $1.0917 EUR= while the dollar index was all but flat at 98.476 .DXY.
The pain in stocks and worries over China even outweighed the positive impact of December's upbeat U.S. payrolls report and burnished the appeal of higher-rated government bonds.
Yields on 3-, 7-, and 10-year U.S. Treasuries all had their biggest weekly declines since early October last year, while five-year yields dropped by the most since Sept. 2013.
The gains continued on Monday with U.S. 10-year Treasury futures TYc1 up 3 ticks, while Fed fund futures <0#FF:> were pricing in a slightly shallower upward path for rates.
In currency markets, the main early news was the yen which is often favored in times of stress as Japan remains the world's largest creditor nation.
The dollar initially fell half a yen to a near five-five month low of 116.70 yen JPY=, before steadying around 117.22.
Dealers said Japanese investors seemed to be bailing out of long positions in the South African rand by selling rand for dollars and then those dollars for yen.
That saw the dollar surge as much as 10.3 percent at one stage to 17.9950 rand ZAR=D3, before tracking back to 16.6780. That was still up from 16.3150 late on Friday.
The euro started firmer but soon softened to $1.0917 EUR= while the dollar index was all but flat at 98.476 .DXY.
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