Eurozone’s final services PMI arrived at 56.4 in September versus the 56.3 preliminary estimate
Wall Street markets ended lower on Monday, with technology and tech-related stocks leading losses as Facebook experienced widespread outages across all its platforms. The social media giant cited faulty configuration changes on its routers as the root cause of the outage. The company remained down for about six hours. Against this backdrop, Facebook shares fell 4.9% overnight, their biggest daily drop in nearly a year. The S&P 500 fell 1.3%, the Dow Jones shed 0.94%, and the Nasdaq Composite lost over 2%.
Following suit, Asian stocks were mostly lower on Tuesday, with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng bucking the trend to edge 0.28% higher. The S&P/ASX 200 in Australia declined 0.41%, trimming early losses after the RBA held interest rates at a record low for an eleventh straight month. South Korea’s Kospi dropped 1.89% while Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 lost 2.19%. Shanghai is closed until Friday for a national holiday.
In Europe, equities opened marginally higher today despite bearishness in other markets, with the pan-European Stoxx 600 adding 0.3% in early trade. On the data front, Eurozone’s final services PMI arrived at 56.4 in September versus the 56.3 preliminary estimate. In France, industrial production rose 1.0% in August versus a revised 0.5% gain the previous month.
In currencies, the dollar is back on the offensive on Tuesday, climbing higher versus most counterparts despite US 10-year yields look side-lined just below the 1.50% figure. As such, EURUSD is back around the 1.1600 figure after a short-lived jump to the 1.1640 area at the beginning of the week. Later in the day, the publication of the ISM non-manufacturing, final services PMI and trade balance figures will be in focus. Strong figures could send the greenback higher across the board.
