Equities sell off sharply, Treasury yields drop with economic data in focus

By Sinéad Carew and Yoruk Bahceli

(Reuters) -MSCI's gauge of global equities fell sharply on Tuesday, with Wall Street stocks taking their biggest hit since early August while U.S. Treasury yields fell after manufacturing data spurred worries about the economy.

Investors were also waiting anxiously for the monthly U.S. jobs report due later in the week, as it is expected to shed more light on the health of the American economy and influence how swiftly the Federal Reserve cuts rates.

Oil sold off sharply and prices settled at their lowest level since Dec. 12 on expectations of an imminent deal to resolve a dispute that has halted Libyan production and exports following a U.N.-brokered meeting between rival factions.

Elsewhere in commodities, copper prices slumped to their lowest in more than two weeks, on concerns that a weak Chinese economy is curbing demand.

Wall Street indexes extended earlier losses after U.S. manufacturing data pointed to subdued factory activity while it edged up last month from an eight-month low in July with some improvement in employment.

"Investors woke up this morning to see a mixed economic report. They saw economically sensitive commodities like oil and copper falling. Also, there's still a hangover from the tech weakness last week," said Gene Goldman, chief investment officer at Cetera Investment Management, El Segundo, California.

"Take all this together and it leads to an opportunity for profit taking, especially with stocks near record highs," said Goldman, also citing jitters that September is typically the weakest month of the year with concerns exacerbated by the looming U.S. presidential election in early November.

Investors are also waiting anxiously for Friday's August U.S. jobs report, which is expected to help determine whether the Fed cuts rates by 25 basis points or 50 on Sept. 18.

"Investors are wondering are we heading into a recession quicker than was thought or does the Fed have this under control with rate cuts going forward," said Robert Pavlik, senior portfolio manager at Dakota Wealth in Fairfield, Connecticut, adding that the manufacturing data "certainly didn't help."

Adding to volatility was the fact that many investors were back from summer vacations and a long weekend as U.S. markets were closed for the Labor Day holiday on Monday.

On Wall Street all three major indexes suffered their biggest daily declines since Aug. 5.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 626.15 points, or 1.51%, to 40,936.93; the S&P 500 lost 119.47 points, or 2.12%, to 5,528.93; and the Nasdaq Composite lost 577.33 points, or 3.26%, to 17,136.30.

MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe fell 13.60 points, or 1.63%, to 819.44, also showing its biggest one-day drop since Aug. 5.

Earlier Europe's STOXX 600 index had closed down close to 1%.

In currencies, the dollar hovered near a two-week high against the euro as traders braced for a data-heavy week, including Friday's U.S. payrolls report.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies including the yen and the euro, gained 0.13% to 101.79.

The euro was down 0.28% at $1.104.

Against the Japanese yen, the dollar weakened 0.82% to 145.69 after media reports that cited the Bank of Japan governor reiterating in a document submitted to a government panel on Tuesday that the bank would keep raising interest rates if the economy and inflation performed as currently expected.

U.S. Treasury yields were mostly lower, with the benchmark 10-year note on track to snap a five-session streak of gains, after the soft manufacturing sector data.

The yield on benchmark U.S. 10-year notes fell 6.5 basis points to 3.846%, from 3.911% late on Friday while the 30-year bond yield fell 5.9 basis points to 4.1373%.

The 2-year note yield, which typically moves in step with interest rate expectations, fell 4.7 basis points to 3.8796%, from 3.927% late on Friday.

In energy markets, U.S. crude settled down 4.4% at $70.34 a barrel and Brent ended at $73.75 per barrel, down 4.9% on the day.

Copper lost 2.12% to $8,988.00 a tonne. Three-month aluminum on the London Metal Exchange fell 0.35% to $2,415.50 a tonne.

Gold prices eased to their lowest in more than a week pressured by a firm dollar, while investors awaited economic data that could determine the size of U.S. rate cuts.

Spot gold lost 0.31% to $2,491.39 an ounce. U.S. gold futures fell 0.27% to $2,487.10 an ounce.

(Reporting by Sinéad Carew, Yoruk Bahceli and Tom Westbrook; Editing by Shri Navaratnam, Kim Coghill, Toby Chopra, Ed Osmond and Andrea Ricci)