Global market sentiment weakened as anxiety about the Middle East war, the energy price shock, inflation spike and the resultant rise in interest rates weighed heavily on sentiment.
Wall Street Futures are trading in the red. Benchmarks in Europe are also trading in negative territory. Earlier in the day, Asian markets had finished trading with heavy losses.
The 6-currency Dollar Index which measures the U.S. Dollar's strength against a basket of 6 currencies extended gains. Bond yields hardened across regions as markets worried about the inflationary impact of the Middle East war. Both the crude oil benchmarks have added to Thursday's gains. Gold slipped a little less than 3 percent. Cryptocurrencies are trading on a mixed note.
Here is a snapshot of the major world markets at this hour. Stock Indexes:
DJIA (US30) at 49,803.20, down 0.52% S&P 500 (US500) at 7,439.10, down 0.83%Germany's DAX at 24,086.98, down 1.50% U.K.'s FTSE 100 at 10,230.41, down 1.37% France's CAC 40 at 7,973.98, down 1.34%Euro Stoxx 50 at 5,839.75, down 1.47% Japan's Nikkei 225 at 61,553.00, down 1.76% Australia's S&P ASX 200 at 8,630.80, down 0.11%China's Shanghai Composite at 4,135.39, down 1.02%Hong Kong's Hang Seng at 25,962.73, down 1.62% South Korea's KOSPI at 7,493.18, down 6.12%
Currencies:
Dollar Index at 99.04, up 0.16% EUR/USD at 1.1651, down 0.15%GBP/USD at 1.3383, down 0.19%USD/JPY at 158.36, up 0.03%AUD/USD at 0.7175, down 0.66%USD/CAD at 1.3741, up 0.12%
Ten-Year Govt Bond Yields:
U.S. at 4.531%, up 1.66% Germany at 3.1057%, up 1.89%France at 3.892%, up 1.99%U.K. at 5.1350%, up 2.86%Japan at 2.702%, up 2.66%
Commodities:
Brent Oil Futures (Jul) at $107.79, up 1.96%.Crude Oil WTI Futures (Jun) at $103.65, up 2.45%.Gold Futures (Jun) at $4,564.80, down 2.57%. Silver Futures (Jul) at $79.16, down 7.23%.
Cryptocurrencies:
Bitcoin at $80,516.45, up 1.39%Ethereum at $2,255.61, down 0.03%BNB at $686.11, down 2.27%XRP at $1.46, up 2.56%Solana at $91.13, up 0.42%
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Business News
May 15, 2026 15:25 ET Apart from the confirmation of Kevin Warsh as the next Fed chair, the main news on the economics front this week included key price data from the U.S. and the first quarter economic growth figures from major economies. Both consumer prices and producer costs have started to reflect the effect of supply shocks due to the Middle East conflict. In Europe, GDP data was in focus, while inflation data from China dominated the news flow in Asia.