LONDON – US stock indexes opened lower on Friday following a strong two-day rally, while Nike tumbled after cutting its sales forecast.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 2.51 points, or 0.01 percent, at the open to 34,762.31.

The S&P 500 opened lower by 10.94 points, or 0.25 percent, at 4,438.04, while the Nasdaq Composite dropped 90.63 points, or 0.60 percent, to 14,961.62 at the opening bell.

Meanwhile, world stocks fell but major markets remained on course for a weekly gain.

Analysts say investors remain bullish on the outlook for global growth and are confident that central banks' withdrawal of their stimulus schemes won't derail the rebound.

On Friday, however, there was some nervousness after solid gains the previous session.

The regionwide STOXX 600 index slid 0.8 percent after a three-day run of gains, while Britain's FTSE 100 also weakened.

Germany's fell 0.8 percent ahead of federal elections over the weekend to elect German Chancellor Angela Merkel's successor.

In Asia MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan eased 0.5 percent to take its weekly losses to 1.2 percent, its third drop in a row.

US stock futures, the S&P 500 e-minis, were down 0.4 percent.

The MSCI World equity index dropped 0.17 percent but was just into positive territory for the week, leaving it 2.7 percent off record highs.

Rising yields

Bond yields in the US and the euro zone extended their rise after Thursday's jump as expectations grow that the Fed will begin tapering its asset purchases by year end and other countries are not far behind.

The yield on benchmark 10-year Treasury bonds was last at 1.425 percent, near a three-month high after gaining 13 basis points overnight.

UK gilt yields extended their surge as investors brought forward their expectations for a BoE rate hike to March.

The 10-year yield rose 5 bps to 0.965 percent, its highest since March 2020, before settling at 0.91 percent. The 2-year yield reached 0.437 percent – also the highest since March 2020 – before falling to 0.377 percent, down 1 bps on the day.

Italy's 10-year yield rose to 0.796 percent, its highest since July 6.

A sense that an inflation surge across many countries may not be as temporary as central bankers believed a few months ago is also fuelling the rise in yields.

"Central bankers have been talking in unison about inflation being transitory but if even the Fed is softening its stance on this, then that could also be the case elsewhere," said Jan von Gerich, chief analyst, Nordea.

"There is a difference though between the US and euro area, where it's easier to buy into the story that price pressures are transitory."

The Fed said on Wednesday it could begin reducing its monthly bond purchases by as soon as November, and that interest rates could rise quicker than expected by next year. The November deadline was largely priced in by markets.

The dollar index on Friday rose 0.1 percent after dropping sharply overnight against a basket of its peers.

The euro dipped to $1.1721 while the yen was flat versus the dollar.

Oil prices rose for a fourth straight day due to global supply concerns following powerful storms in the United States.

Brent crude rose 0.1 percent to $77.33 a barrel and US oil gained 0.1 percent to $73.35 per barrel.

Gold rose 0.5 percent to $1,751 per ounce. It fell over 1 percent the day before as higher yields hurt the non-interest bearing asset.