Emerging-market shares give up 2019 gain in global equity rout

Emerging markets weren't spared in the global stock-market rout Wednesday, with the iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF falling 2.8%. The decline erased the popular exchange-traded fund's gain for the year, leaving it down 0.8% for 2019. U.S. stocks saw losses deepen in afternoon trade. The selloff was attributed to an inversion of the main measure of the U.S. yield curve, which is viewed as a recession signal, albeit typically with a significant lag, as well as weak economic data out of China and Europe. The S&P 500 was off 2.7%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped more than 700 points, or 2.8%. The declines left the benchmark S&P 500 up 13.6% for the year and around 6% off its all-time closing high.

Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.