China, growth jitters weigh on global stocks, dollar buoyant

China, growth jitters weigh on global stocks, dollar buoyant

LONDON/HONG KONG - World shares steadied on Friday above three-week lows set in the previous session though they were heading for a weekly loss on China jitters and global growth concerns, while strong U.S. retail sales data buoyed the dollar. Shares in embattled property developer China Evergrande, which has two trillion yuan ($310 billion) in liabilities and faces an $80 million bond coupon payment next week, dropped a further 0.4% on Friday, down 28% this week. The editor-in-chief of state-backed Chinese newspaper Global Times warned Evergrande that it should not bet on a government bailout on the assumption it is "too big to fail". "The underlying risk for markets is if Evergrande is not bailed out by the Chinese government," said Giles Coghlan, chief currency analyst at HYCM, though he added: "I don't think Evergrande is a Lehman scenario - it's not going to be a massive systemic risk." MSCI's world equity index gained 0.16% to 736.36 but was down 0.12% on the week. The index hit a record high of 749.16 on Sept 7. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.15% but was set to finish down 2.7% on the week, which would be its worst