Ahead of the start of regular trading, the Dow Jones industrial average futures were down 0.6%, Standard & Poor's 500 index futures were down 0.7%, and Nasdaq composite index futures were down 0.7%.
Slowing growth in China and a move by the Federal Reserve to start cutting back on its easy-money policies has caused problems in many emerging economies, where currencies have come under intense selling pressure, raising the fears of economic problems caused by rising inflation and capital outflows.
On Thursday, the Argentine peso plunged 15% versus the U.S. dollar, its biggest swoon since 2002. Similarly the Turkish lira hit a record low vs. the U.S. greenback.
On Thursday, the Dow fell 175.99 points, or 1.1%, to 16,197. 35. The Standard & Poor's 500 index dropped 16.40 points, or 0.9% to 1,828.46 and the Nasdaq composite index fell 24.13 points, or 0.6% to 4,218.87.
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Signs of slowing growth in China and mediocre earnings reports have been enough to frighten investors who are anxiously awaiting a clear indication that the bull market may be on a collision course with its first significant price correction since 2011..
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Asian markets continued to fall on reports of a sluggish Chinese economy. Japan's Nikkei 225 index plummeted 304.33 points, 1.9%, to 15,391.56. Hong's Kong's Hang Seng index was also shaken, dropping 283.84 points, 1.3%, to 22,450.06. The Shanghai composite index bucked the downward trend and gained 12.21 points, 0.6%, to 2,054.39.
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"Apart from the Shanghai Composite, the rest of the region seems to be! struggling to gain traction heading into the weekend," Stan Shamu, a strategist at IG Markets in Melbourne, Australia, said in a report.
European benchmarks took heavy losses, with Britain's FTSE 100 index down 1.0%, Germany's DAX index down 1.2% and France's CAC-40 diving 1.5%.
Contributing: The Associated Press
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