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U.S. equity futures extended declines in early Friday trading as global markets, as well as businesses spanning travel, banking, healthcare and finance, grappled with the impact of a massive IT outage.
Microsoft’s (MSFT) Azure cloud services suffered an unknown issue that the tech giant insisted was not a cybersecurity attack, adding that it’s been identified, isolated and now under repair.
“We’re aware of an issue affecting Windows devices due to an update from a third-party software platform. We anticipate a resolution is forthcoming,” Microsoft said in a statement.
Separately, cybersecurity group CrowdStrike (CRWD) said Falcon Sensor, its threat-monitoring software, was causing Windows operating systems to crash in IT systems and networks all over the world.
CrowdStrike is actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts. Mac and Linux hosts are not impacted. This is not a security incident or cyberattack. The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed. We…
— George Kurtz (@George_Kurtz) July 19, 2024
Several U.S. air carries grounded hundreds of flights as a result of the multiple systems failures, including American Airlines (AAL) , Delta Air Lines and (DAL) United Airlines (UAL) , while airports from Tokyo to Toronto suffered long delays, cancellations and ticketing issues.
In the United Kingdom, Sky News, which was bought by Comcast (CMCSA) in 2018, went off the air as a result of the outage, with reports of impacts at hospitals, banks and government agencies. Trading at the London Stock Exchange was also affected.
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The outage and its impact are likely to have only a minimal impact of U.S. stock markets, however, with futures contracts tied to all three major benchmarks suggesting little change from last night’s broad market selloff.
The S&P 500 is set to open around 2 points higher, with a modest 40 point decline expected for the Nasdaq and a 65 point pullback for the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
Microsoft shares were marked 2.15% lower at $430.89 in heavy premarket volume, while CrowdStrike shares plunged 16.1% to $287.70 each.
Netflix (NFLX) shares were also active, falling 1.1% to $636.12 each, after the streaming media group posted stronger-than-expected second quarter earnings and robust subscriber growth, but cautioned that it new ad-supported business would grow at a slower pace than Wall Street forecasts.
In the bond market, Treasury yields were modestly higher heading into the final day of the trading week, with 10-year notes changing hands at 4.211% and 2-year notes pegged at 4.479%.
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six global currencies, was marked 0.18% higher at 104.365.
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In overseas markets, Europe’s Stoxx 600 was marked 0.54% lower in Frankfurt, while Britain’s FTSE 100 was marked 0.4% lower in London.
Overnight in Asia, the region-wide MSCI ex-Japan benchmark fell 1.76% into the close of trading, while Japan’s Nikkei 225 ended 0.16% lower in Tokyo.
Related: Veteran fund manager sees world of pain coming for stocks
