Eurozone final consumer confidence came in at -10.8, in line with the preliminary estimate
Wall Street stocks ended mostly lower overnight, as investors expressed concerns over damage from a forced liquidation of Archegos Capital. After Archegos’ margin call, Nomura and Credit Suisse warned of significant exposure to the trades. As such, the S&P 500 dropped 0.09%, the Dow gained 0.30%, and the Nasdaq shed 0.60%.
Following initial losses, Asian stocks turned mostly higher on Tuesday, with rising bond yields capping gains in the markets. Lockdown measures in Europe and the new coronavirus uptick in the U.S. weighed on investor sentiment as well. Still, Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 managed to finish 0.16% higher despite the reports that the weekly number of newly confirmed novel coronavirus cases in Japan has exceeded 10,000 for the first time in six weeks. The Shanghai Composite in China advanced 0.62% while Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 lost nearly 1% after a 1.7% rally seen last week.
European stocks climbed at the open on Tuesday as investor sentiment continued to improve modestly. The pan-European Stoxx 600 gained 0.5% in early trade. On the data front, the Eurozone’s March final consumer confidence came in at -10.8, in line with the preliminary estimate. The economic confidence index arrived at 101.0 versus 96 expected while services confidence improved to -9.3 versus -14.9 expected.
Meanwhile, the resurgent Treasury yields pushed the dollar to fresh 2021 tops. EURUSD slipped to the 1.1730 area for the first time since November before bouncing slightly following fairly upbeat confidence data out of the Eurozone. Still, the market focus is on the next bearish target arrives at 1.1700. Despite the oversold conditions, the common currency could suffer losses versus the greenback, as Europe continues struggling with the vaccine rollout.
