Worldwide Slump for Indices, Greece Snap Election Announced
August 21, 2015 6:46 am
Asian stocks plunged across the board on Friday after a Chinese Factory data fell at its fastest pace since 2009, with investors moving out of equities and into save haven bonds and gold. The Shanghai Composite dropped by another 4.27%, whilst the Hang Seng and Nikkei were down by 1.41% and 2.98% respectively. US stocks also had a rocky day yesterday, with both the Dow and S&P500 closing down by over 2%. In Europe this morning the news is similar; the FTSE is down by around 0.7%, having now fallen for the eighth consecutive day. At 6,334.65, it’s now at its lowest level so far in 2015. The DAX is down by 0.83%, but the CAC is currently down by more than 3%.
The Euro traded near a two-month high of $1.1250, after climbing 1.1% the previous day. Against the Yen, the Dollar fell to its lowest level in nearly six weeks at 122.81; the US currency was last down 0.4% at 122.92. The Australian Dollar fell to $0.7285 and was last trading at $0.7303, down 0.5% on the day; AUD is down 1% against USD this week.
In commodities, crude oil resumed its downward trend. U.S. crude, slipped 0.4% to $40.91 after touching a multi-year low of $40.21 on Thursday. Brent was on track for its seventh weekly decline in the past eight, trading 56 cents lower at $46.06 a barrel, after settling 54 cents lower on Thursday.
Greece is back in focus after the news that the country is to hold a snap general election, likely to be on 20 September, just weeks after securing a new €86bn bailout deal with international creditors. Fresh elections called by prime minister Alexis Tsipras on the very first day of the bailout programme seem likely to plunge Greece back into short-term political uncertainty. The announcement is widely being seen as Mr Tsipras looking for popular support for the tough decisions he has taken over the past few months.
Asian stocks plunged across the board on Friday after a Chinese Factory data fell at its fastest pace since 2009, with investors moving out of equities and into save haven bonds and gold. The Shanghai Composite dropped by another 4.27%, whilst the Hang Seng and Nikkei were down by 1.41% and 2.98% respectively. US stocks also had a rocky day yesterday, with both the Dow and S&P500 closing down by over 2%. In Europe this morning the news is similar; the FTSE is down by around 0.7%, having now fallen for the eighth consecutive day. At 6,334.65, it’s now at its lowest level so far in 2015. The DAX is down by 0.83%, but the CAC is currently down by more than 3%.
The Euro traded near a two-month high of $1.1250, after climbing 1.1% the previous day. Against the Yen, the Dollar fell to its lowest level in nearly six weeks at 122.81; the US currency was last down 0.4% at 122.92. The Australian Dollar fell to $0.7285 and was last trading at $0.7303, down 0.5% on the day; AUD is down 1% against USD this week.
In commodities, crude oil resumed its downward trend. U.S. crude, slipped 0.4% to $40.91 after touching a multi-year low of $40.21 on Thursday. Brent was on track for its seventh weekly decline in the past eight, trading 56 cents lower at $46.06 a barrel, after settling 54 cents lower on Thursday.
Greece is back in focus after the news that the country is to hold a snap general election, likely to be on 20 September, just weeks after securing a new €86bn bailout deal with international creditors. Fresh elections called by prime minister Alexis Tsipras on the very first day of the bailout programme seem likely to plunge Greece back into short-term political uncertainty. The announcement is widely being seen as Mr Tsipras looking for popular support for the tough decisions he has taken over the past few months. 
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