Stock Market News (European Open) – Europe broadly down; Chinese stocks decline sharply; US markets closed for Thanksgiving
November 23, 2017 11:25 am
With Japanese markets closed for Labor Thanksgiving Day, attention shifted to other Asian markets. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 1.0% after yesterday closing at a 10-year high and the Shanghai Composite retreated by 2.3% to record its worst daily performance of the year. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 finished the day flat.
Sentiment is China was negatively affected on the back of government warnings of an overextended market and increased deleveraging efforts on fears of a looming credit crisis. Bond markets are falling and there are concerns the decline would spread into equities.
European bourses were down for the most part during morning trading. At 1024 GMT, the pan-European Stoxx 600 traded lower by 0.2%, while the blue-chip Euro Stoxx 50 was up by 0.1%.
The UK’s FTSE 100 and the German DAX were down by 0.3% and 0.2% respectively, while the French CAC 40 traded higher by 0.2%. Alongside the CAC 40, the Spanish IBEX 35 (up 0.3%) and Italian FTSE MIB (up 0.1%) were the only other major European blue-chip benchmarks trading in the green.
A rising euro/dollar pair could also be hurting export-heavy benchmarks such the German DAX. Today the pair touched an eight-day high of 1.1847, while it last traded not far below that level. Eurozone November preliminary PMI data for the manufacturing and services sectors as well as the composite measure (that blends the two sectors) released earlier in the day all positively surprised, pointing to a strengthening eurozone economy. ECB minutes pertaining to the central bank’s late October meeting will be released at 1230 GMT. Investors will be on the lookout for differing opinions among policymakers on tapering. Banks, which tend to benefit from higher yields will be particularly in focus. The Stoxx 600 Banks sub-index was last 0.3% down on the day.
UK-based utility company Centrica (down 17.4%) was by far the worst performer within the Stoxx 600 (and the FTSE 100) after full-year profit missed expectations and the company lost a significant portion of its energy customers within a span of just four months. Fellow UK-based utility National Grid also experienced losses on the back of the news. Its losses last stood at 3.25% with the company being the second worst underperformer (after Centrica) in the Stoxx 600 and the FTSE.
Telecom Italia (up 4.9%) led gains within the Stoxx 600 and the FTSE MIB. The telecommunications company yesterday said that it intends to fully comply with requests by the Italian government in relation to protecting the former state telephone monopoly as a strategic asset. The company’s shares were temporarily halted from trading today after a sharp rise in price.
Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures contracts were last little changed on the day. US markets will be closed today for the Thanksgiving holiday.
With Japanese markets closed for Labor Thanksgiving Day, attention shifted to other Asian markets. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 1.0% after yesterday closing at a 10-year high and the Shanghai Composite retreated by 2.3% to record its worst daily performance of the year. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 finished the day flat.
Sentiment is China was negatively affected on the back of government warnings of an overextended market and increased deleveraging efforts on fears of a looming credit crisis. Bond markets are falling and there are concerns the decline would spread into equities.
European bourses were down for the most part during morning trading. At 1024 GMT, the pan-European Stoxx 600 traded lower by 0.2%, while the blue-chip Euro Stoxx 50 was up by 0.1%.
The UK’s FTSE 100 and the German DAX were down by 0.3% and 0.2% respectively, while the French CAC 40 traded higher by 0.2%. Alongside the CAC 40, the Spanish IBEX 35 (up 0.3%) and Italian FTSE MIB (up 0.1%) were the only other major European blue-chip benchmarks trading in the green.
A rising euro/dollar pair could also be hurting export-heavy benchmarks such the German DAX. Today the pair touched an eight-day high of 1.1847, while it last traded not far below that level. Eurozone November preliminary PMI data for the manufacturing and services sectors as well as the composite measure (that blends the two sectors) released earlier in the day all positively surprised, pointing to a strengthening eurozone economy. ECB minutes pertaining to the central bank’s late October meeting will be released at 1230 GMT. Investors will be on the lookout for differing opinions among policymakers on tapering. Banks, which tend to benefit from higher yields will be particularly in focus. The Stoxx 600 Banks sub-index was last 0.3% down on the day.
UK-based utility company Centrica (down 17.4%) was by far the worst performer within the Stoxx 600 (and the FTSE 100) after full-year profit missed expectations and the company lost a significant portion of its energy customers within a span of just four months. Fellow UK-based utility National Grid also experienced losses on the back of the news. Its losses last stood at 3.25% with the company being the second worst underperformer (after Centrica) in the Stoxx 600 and the FTSE.
Telecom Italia (up 4.9%) led gains within the Stoxx 600 and the FTSE MIB. The telecommunications company yesterday said that it intends to fully comply with requests by the Italian government in relation to protecting the former state telephone monopoly as a strategic asset. The company’s shares were temporarily halted from trading today after a sharp rise in price.
Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures contracts were last little changed on the day. US markets will be closed today for the Thanksgiving holiday.
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