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By Bloomberg

U.S. and European equity-index futures fell and the yen strengthened with Treasuries after a doctor in New York tested positive for Ebola. Japan led Asian shares toward their first gain in seven weeks, while crude oil slid.

Futures on the Standard & Poor's 500 Index slipped 0.3 percent by 7:21 a.m. in London, and contracts on the Nasdaq 100 Index sank 0.4 percent while those on the Euro Stoxx 50 Index fell 0.4 percent. Tokyo's Topix gauge capped its best week in 18 months. The yen snapped a six-day drop as yields on five-year Japanese bonds hit a 19-month low and the rate on 10-year Treasuries fell three basis points. Oil in New York retreated 0.4 percent.

A New York City doctor tested positive for Ebola after returning from work in West Africa with an aid agency, a government official said. Home prices dropped in 69 of 70 Chinese cities in September from August, data today showed, as Asia's biggest economy expands at the slowest pace since 2009. A gauge of German consumer confidence will rise in November, beating estimates for it to fall, according to Gfk.

"The market is reacting to this Ebola scare," Nader Naeimi, who helps manage $125 billion as head of dynamic asset allocation at Sydney-based AMP Capital Investors Ltd., said by phone. "People are drawing parallels to the SARS outbreak 10 years ago. Growth worries are starting to abate, with Europe likely to avoid another recession. We should start to see Asia outperforming."

Isolation Ward

In the first case of Ebola in the most populous U.S. city, a 33-year-old doctor is being treated in an isolation unit at Bellevue Hospital Center in midtown Manhattan. The diagnosis was made in preliminary tests, a government official said. Samples of his blood will be sent to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta for final confirmation.

Futures on the S&P 500 traded at 1,940. The U.S. benchmark measure climbed 1.2 percent yesterday, paring an advance of as much as 1.8 percent as reports of the Ebola infection tempered gains from better-than-estimated earnings reports. The Dow Jones Industrial Average increased 1.3 percent, erasing its loss for the year and the Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 1.6 percent.

Health-care companies led gains on the Asia-Pacific stock gauge today. The regional index is heading for its first weekly increase in seven weeks, as Japanese shares lead a rebound.

Fujifilm Holdings Corp. added 2.5 percent and is up 11 percent for the week after a spokesman said today its Avigan influenza drug may be included among experimental Ebola treatments to be tested by aid group Doctors Without Borders, or MSF.

Experimental Drug

The Topix index climbed 0.8 percent today, taking its advance since Oct. 17 to 5.5 percent, almost erasing last week's biggest retreat since April. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 Index climbed 0.5 percent.

Economic data yesterday suggested the euro-area economy may have moved one step away from another recession. A Purchasing Managers' Index showed manufacturing in the region unexpectedly grew this month, and Spain's third-quarter unemployment dropped to the lowest level since 2011. In Germany, factories rebounded from a slump in September.

A gauge of Chinese companies in Hong Kong China fell 0.4 percent and the Hang Seng Index swung between gains and losses after the new-home price report bolstered the case for further easing measures to support the government's growth goals. The Shanghai Composite Index was little changed.

China Woes

China reported economic expansion of 7.3 percent last quarter from a year earlier, the slowest since the first quarter of 2009, after economists predicted growth of 7.2 percent. Retail sales grew at the slowest pace since February 2011 in September, data this week showed.

A 20 percent drop-off in China sales was blamed by Unilever, the maker of Surf and Rin laundry detergents, yesterday for its slowest third-quarter revenue growth in five years.

Japanese bonds rallied with the five-year yield declining 1.5 basis point to 0.115 percent, the lowest since March 2013. Ten-year yields fell two basis point to 0.46 percent as the yen climbed to 107.98. Japan's currency is down 6.1 percent versus the greenback since the end of June.

U.S. 10-year Treasuries yielded 2.25 percent, with the 2.375 percent August 2024 note climbing 7/32, or $2.19 per $1,000 face amount, to 101 4/32. Demand for the relative security of U.S. debt has pushed Treasuries up 1.4 percent this month through yesterday, the biggest advance since January, based on Bloomberg indexes.

Oil Slides

West Texas Intermediate crude for December delivery dropped as much as 77 cents to $81.32 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange before trading at $81.70. The contract climbed $1.57 to $82.09 yesterday. The volume of all futures traded was about 17 percent below the 100-day average. Prices are down 1.3 percent this week and 17 percent in 2014.

Saudi Arabia's shipments to global markets shrank last month even as its production increased, a person familiar with the kingdom's oil policy said. Crude has collapsed into a bear market amid rising supplies as leading members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries resisted calls to reduce output, even as the U.S. pumps at the fastest pace in almost three decades. Brent fell 0.1 percent to $86.71 in London.

Nickel for three month delivery in London gained for the first time in five days, paring its seventh weekly loss, the longest losing streak in 13 years. Stockpiles tracked by the London Metal Exchange have jumped 44 percent this year to 377,538 metric tons, rising for a third year, according to bourse data.