us new home sales for august kansas city southern special meeting of shareholders to vote on acquisition by canadian national railway stock futures wavered and bond yields ticked up to multimonth highs as uncertainty lingered about the future of heavily indebted property giant china evergrande group there has been a growing feeling that there is a pullback waiting said seema shah chief strategist at principal global investors the market is so vulnerable to any kind of shock right now given growth is slowing and valuations are looking stretched markets have been whipsawed this week by fears that the possible collapse of evergrande could spill over into global markets and add to an already darkening outlook for global growth evergrande inched closer to a potential default friday as a deadline on a key interest payment to its us dollar bondholders passed without any announcement it is one of the largest companies in the second largest economy in the world and if something pulls down chinese growth it is going to pull down global growth said ms shah the companys shares slumped over 12 in hong kong as the thursday deadline for the 835 million coupon payment passed evergrandes shares have fallen over 80 this year in us off hours trading meredith corp surged 19 off hours after the wall street journal reported the people magazine publisher was in talks to be acquired by barry dillers iacinteractivecorp shares of nike fell 4 in premarket trading after the sportswear giant lowered revenue guidance citing supplychain disruptions in asia rival adidas slipped 3 in european trading shares in warehouse grocery chain costco ticked up 08 after the warehouse grocery giant reported quarterly sales the dxy dollar index fell erasing some of the gains in the wake of wednesdays us federal reserve announcement that took it to a onemonth high but investors should return to buy the currency due to prospects of tighter monetary policy ing said we are still inclined to think markets will buy the dips in the dollar given the reinforced backdrop of policy normalisation in the us it said the fed said it could start tapering asset purchases as early as november while interest rates could rise by the end of next year ing said markets for now seem reluctant to trust the feds interestrate projections and may need more evidence from us data the pound traded steady failing to build on thursdays gains after a bank of england policy statement suggested the central bank was moving closer to tightening monetary policy and mufg said it could reverse these gains due to nearterm risks to the uk economy these include reduced pandemicrelated support surging gas prices and continuing supply bottlenecks the hit to real incomes from surging utility bills just as an increase to benefit payments added during the pandemic is taken away could undermine consumer confidence and weaken consumer spending said mufgs derek halpenny sterling advanced nearly 1 versus the dollar thursday but nearterm elevated risks leave us more wary of the move reversing he said markets were contending with a rise in government bond yields after several central banksincluding the fedthis week signaled they were on the path toward removing pandemicera stimulus measures the yield on the benchmark 10year us treasury note rose to 1437 friday from 1408 thursday hitting its highest level since july ofi asset management expects a gradual rise in us and eurozone bond yields by yearend as central banks intend to gradually remove some monetary stimulus said jeanmarie mercadal head of investment strategies ofi ams yearend targets for the 10year us treasury and german bund yields are 175 and 020 respectively with the expected increases not triggering any major price fluctuations in markets markets seem to have priced in the feds intention to scale back asset purchases he said the european central bank also decided in september to continue asset purchases at a moderately lower level in the coming quarter compared with 2q and 3q oil prices rose with both benchmarks on course for weekly gains brents trading close to its october 2018 high with ubss giovanni staunovo pointing to the supply disruptions and recovering oil demand that have caused volatility in the market since august on top of hurricane ida maintenance work in kazakhstan as well as outages in nigeria mexico and libya have all contributed to rising prices in recent weeks he added forecasting a brent price of 80 a barrel for the end of the month gold rebounded after a steep fall on thursday that was prompted by rising bond yields and signs that global central banks could soon hike rates to tame inflation the precious metal slumped as low as 173970 in the previous session as us treasury yields rose to their highest level since july the market is showing a little bit of a taper tantrum says seema shah chief strategist at principal global investors of the rising bond yields signs that global central banks were moving to remove pandemicera stimulus measures are behind the move in bond markets she said china evergrande never got auditor warning despite big debt load last year as china evergrande groups stock and bond prices seesawed it offered deep discounts to keep sales growing during the pandemic and the government effectively said it had borrowed too much yet the property developers auditor gave it a clean bill of health in an annual report issued this spring global investors who own china evergrande groups us dollar bonds were in the dark thursday about whether the property giant would make a key interest payment a major test of the highly indebted developers ability to avoid a default evergrande was on the hook to make 835 million in coupon payments on sept 23 on dollar bonds with a face value of 203 billion as of late afternoon in new york on thursday bondholders hadnt received the money according to people familiar with the matter iacinteractivecorp is in advanced talks to acquire magazine publisher meredith corp owner of brands including people and better homes  gardens according to people familiar with the situation in an effort to build more scale in online publishing the deal which is expected to be valued at more than 25 billion would vastly expand iacs collection of online publications which include brides serious eats and tripsavvy the people said it would also bulk up iacs portfolio of websites which has shrunk recently after the company moved to spin off onlinedating behemoth match group inc and videohosting and sharing platform vimeo inc the covid19 pandemic has caught up with nike inc the sneaker giants revenue growth is being limited by supplychain disruptions that have slowed the production and delivery of shoes and other goods around the world nike on thursday reported revenue of 1225 billion for the quarter ended aug 31 up 16 from a year earlier and essentially flat with the june quarter the results were below expectations of wall street analysts who had expected revenue to reach 1247 billion costco wholesale corps sales increased in its latest quarter but inflationary pressures continued to build the company posted 6268 billion in revenue for its quarter ended aug 29 up 17 from a year earlier analysts had predicted the chain would report 6141 billion in revenue according to factset alibaba under beijing pressure moves to sell stake in stateowned broadcaster alibaba group holding ltd plans to dispose of its minority ownership in a stateowned broadcaster the first concrete step the chinese internet giant is taking to dismantle its sprawling media empire following pressure from beijing mango excellent media a subsidiary of the governmentrun hunan tv said in a stock exchange filing on friday that alibaba plans to sell its entire 5 stake in the shenzhenlisted company less than a year after buying it it didnt provide a reason for the proposed sale alibaba declined to comment apple inc hit back at european union moves to introduce a universal charger for smartphones tablets and other electronic devices saying such legislation would be antiinnovation and would serve to increase waste the european commission the blocs executive arm said thursday that it is proposing usbc as the standard port for smartphones tablets headphones portable speakers cameras and some videogame consoles regardless of the device brand the move aims to cut waste related to the production and disposal of chargers cdc chief backs pfizer boosters for frontline workers in break with panel the director of centers for disease control and prevention said workers at high risk of covid19 infection should receive a booster of pfizer incs vaccine in a decision that deviated from the recommendation of an advisory panel that the cdc typically follows cdc director rochelle walensky signed off on a series of recommendations from the panel saying boosters should be offered to people 65 and over as well as those 50 to 64 years with underlying medical conditions according to the associated press the extra dose would be given at least six months after the last shot