Futures take a hit as oil falls further

USA crude oil futures settled up 33 cents at $43.91 a barrel.

“We now seem to be getting to a phase where some risk factors are weighing on investors’ minds”, said Elvis Picardo, a strategist at Global Securities, citing a recent jump in bond yields, the November U.S. presidential election and the Federal reserve’s on-again, off-again U.S. rate-hike signals. Japan’s Nikkei 225 lost 114.01 points to land at 16,614.24, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng slipped 25.09 points to 23,190.64, London’s FTSE 100 rose 7.69 points to 6,673.31 and Germany’s DAX fell 8.19 points to 10,378.40.

“Oil is acting as a barometer for the economy”, said Andre Bakhos, managing director at Janlyn Capital in Bernardsville, New Jersey.

Energy producers and financial services companies gained at least 0.9 percent to lead increases across all 10 industries in the S&P/TSX.

The Nasdaq Composite dropped 1.09 percent to 5,155.26.

The S&P 500 is trading at almost 17 times expected earnings, well above its 10-year average of 14, according to Thomson Reuters Datastream.

Still, the USA economic outlook remains positive. “We need to see a decent uptick in third-quarter earnings, an accommodative Fed and continued good employment and housing numbers”. Cenovus Energy Inc. increased 2.2 percent. Its 0.96 percent gain was the largest since July 4. Some analysts called the US$2 billion deal low-cost.