* Commodity prices index hits lowest since August 2002
* Brent crude under $35 a barrel for first time since 2004
* Emerging market stocks lowest since mid-2009
(Updates to U.S. market close)
By Rodrigo Campos
NEW YORK, Jan 6 (Reuters) - Stocks across the globe fell on
Wednesday to their lowest in nearly three months as a move to
weaken China's currency fuelled fears about the strength of the
world's second largest economy and as Brent crude hit its lowest
since 2004.
A nuclear test by North Korea added to a growing list of
geopolitical worries including a row between Saudi Arabia and
Iran that made any cooperation between major oil exporters to
cut output even more unlikely.
Energy stocks led the slide on Wall Street, with the S&P 500
at a three-month low despite strong U.S. job market data. Losses
deepened after minutes from the latest Federal Reserve meeting
showed some Fed officials were worried that inflation could get
stuck at dangerously low levels.
The U.S. dollar weakened and Treasury yields fell after the
Fed minutes.
Traders and economists feared the move from China to further
depreciate the yuan may mean the world's second-biggest economy
is even weaker than had been expected and could trigger another
wave of competitive devaluations in the region.
"The big influence continues to be concerns about what's
going on in China ... in what appears to be an economy getting a
little out of hand," said Stephen Massocca, chief investment
officer at Wedbush Equity Management in San Francisco.
"I think there's this theory going around that the global
economy is going to slow greatly driven by a large slowdown in
China."
North Korea's announcement that it had successfully tested a
hydrogen nuclear device added to geopolitical worries stirred by
a row between Saudi Arabia and Iran. The White House said
Pyongyang might not in fact have tested a hydrogen bomb, which
is much more powerful than an atomic bomb.
"There are very legitimate reasons for concern," said Brad
McMillan, chief investment officer at Commonwealth Financial in
Waltham, Massachusetts, citing the Saudi-Iran row and the report
of North Korea's H-bomb test.
"You could argue the market response has been very
rational."
The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI fell 252.15 points,
or 1.47 percent, to 16,906.51, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 26.45
points, or 1.31 percent, to 1,990.26 and the Nasdaq Composite
.IXIC dropped 55.67 points, or 1.14 percent, to 4,835.77.
Apple AAPL.O briefly dipped below $100 for the first time
since Aug. 24 and was the biggest drag on both the S&P 500 and
Nasdaq. The stock ended down 2 percent.
MSCI's World index of developed market stocks .WORLD hit a
3-month low and emerging market shares .MSCIEF were at their
lowest since mid-2009. Nikkei futures NKc1 were down 2
percent.
CRUDE TUMBLES, DOLLAR SLIPS
The U.S. Treasury benchmark yield hit its lowest in more
than three weeks on safe-haven demand and signs that a lack of
inflationary pressures could slow the pace of Federal Reserve
interest rate hikes this year.
U.S. 10-year Treasury notes US10YT=RR were last up 22/32
in price to yield 2.172 percent, from a yield of 2.25 percent
late Tuesday.
The U.S. dollar touched a near three-month low of 118.22 yen
JPY= and it lost 0.3 percent against the euro EUR= at
$1.0783.
Spot gold XAU= rose 1.5 percent to $1,093.66 an ounce.
Brent crude oil prices hit new 11-year lows as the face-off
between Saudi Arabia and Iran over Riyadh's execution of a
Shi'ite cleric was seen extinguishing any chance of major
producers cooperating to cut production.
"Shale production and increasing capacity from countries
like Russia who need to protect revenue, combined with
expectations of further Iranian supply, mean actual production
as well as expectations of future production are rising," said
Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets.
Global benchmark Brent crude LCOc1 fell nearly 6 percent
to $34.30 a barrel and U.S. crude futures CLc1 were down 5.5
percent at $33.98.
U.S. government data showing an unexpected 5.1
million-barrel fall in crude stocks last week was overshadowed
by a 10.6 million-barrel surge in gasoline supplies, the biggest
build since 1993. Some traders said the build-up signalled a
slowdown in demand that could extend the global glut.
The Thomson Reuters/CoreCommodity CRB index .TRJCRB hit
its lowest since August 2002.