ECB’s Panetta said it was clearly premature to discuss any paring of emergency asset buying
Wall Street stocks finished marginally lower overnight as investors reacted to a weaker-than-expected reading on consumer confidence. The Conference Board said its U.S. consumer-confidence index slipped to 117.2 in May from a revised 117.5 a month earlier. As such, the S&P 500 declined 0.21%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.24%, and the Nasdaq fell less than 0.1%.
Today in Asia, equities were mostly higher on Wednesday as inflation fears continued to ease after reassured by comments from U.S. Federal Reserve officials that they see no need yet to change course. Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand announced it would maintain the current stimulatory monetary settings until its inflation and employment targets are met. The Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.34% while Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 added 0.31%. The Kospi in Seoul slipped 0.09% and Sydney’s S&P/ASX 200 shed 0.32%.
European stocks opened higher on Wednesday, with the Stoxx Europe 600 index rising 0.1% in early trade. Earlier in the day, ECB’s Panetta said it was clearly premature to discuss any paring of emergency asset buying in the Eurozone even though the economic outlook is improving. In individual stocks, shares of Marks & Spencer climbed 4.5% after the retailer said its business was ahead of a two-year-earlier comparative for the first six weeks of fiscal 2022. The company also swung to a pretax loss for fiscal 2021 on lower revenue.
Meanwhile, the dollar looks mixed, attempting to pare some of its recent losses while US 10-yer Treasury yields keep navigating below the 1.60% figure. The USD index bounced from fresh monthly lows in the mid-89.00s and posts decent gains in the 89.70 zone early in Europe. However, the index remains under pressure in a wider picture and could see deeper losses in the coming days.
