US tech shares tumble; emerging currencies dip

Bloomberg

US stocks fell, with FANG shares tumbling as executives of the tech heavyweights face scrutiny on Capitol Hill. The selloff in emerging market currencies deepened, adding to the risk-off tone on global financial markets.
Twitter, Facebook and Alphabet sent the Nasdaq Composite Index down by more than 1 percent during Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on social media and foreign influences on elections. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index sunk to its lowest since April before paring the decline.
An emerging-market currency gauge fell to a fresh one-year low, led for a second day by South Africa’s rand.
“Trade is looking worse, emerging markets are looking worse, but you’d think FANGs are pretty insulated from some of those negatives,” said Mike Bailey, director of research
at FBB Capital Partners in Bethesda, Maryland.
“Just the visual of seeing folks hauled in front of Congress is probably not helping the big-cap tech names.”
The pound rallied after the British and German governments were said to have abandoned key Brexit demands to potentially ease the path for the UK to strike a deal with the European Union.
Sterling shrugged off earlier weakness to climb toward $1.30. Germany is ready to accept a less detailed agreement on the UK’s future ties with the EU in a bid to get a Brexit deal done, while the UK is also willing to settle for a vaguer statement of intent, according to people familiar with the matter who declined to be named.
“The more ‘positive’ or ‘friendly’ Brexit headlines we get, the harder it’ll be for pound bears to ignore,” said Viraj Patel, an ING Groep NV currency strategist.
Elsewhere, gold climbed, while WTI oil futures dropped in the context of a strong dollar and a potential build at the Cushing, Oklahoma, storage hub. Bitcoin fell after a report that Goldman Sachs was said to delay setting up a trading desk for cryptocurrencies.
Executives from Facebook, Twitter and Google are testifying on Wednesday on social media, alleged Russia meddling. The S&P 500 Index dropped 0.5 percent, the Dow Jones Industrial Average eased 0.1 percent and the Nasdaq Composite Index declined 1.3 percent in New York. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index fell 0.7 percent, the lowest in more than two months. The UK’s FTSE 100 Index declined 0.4 percent to the lowest in almost 19 weeks.
The MSCI Emerging Market Index dipped 1.5 percent, reaching the lowest in almost three weeks on its sixth straight decline and the biggest decrease in three weeks. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index sank 1.5 percent, hitting the lowest in almost three weeks with its fifth consecutive decline and the largest tumble in more than three weeks.
The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.2 percent, after reaching the highest in almost three weeks. The MSCI Emerging Markets Currency Index sank 0.3 percent, touching the lowest level in 16 months.
The euro increased 0.3 percent to $1.1619. The British pound rallied 0.7 percent to $1.2950, after hitting the weakest in two weeks. The yield on 10-year Treasuries rose one basis point to 2.90 percent.