This week, the European Central Bank meeting due on Thursday will be in focus
Wall Street stocks mostly moved down on Friday, with the S&P500 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq indexes falling 0.11% and 0.82%, respectively. Meanwhile, the Dow Jones bucked the trend to finish at a new record closing high.
Risk sentiment deteriorated after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said the central bank was on track to begin reducing its purchases of assets. Also on the negative side, mixed earnings news from several companies added to a less upbeat tone in the market. In particular, shares of Snap plunged over 25% after the company reported mixed third-quarter results and warned about slower growth in the coming quarters, while Intel posted weaker than expected sales. Stocks of the semiconductor giant shed nearly 12%.
Today in Asia, the sentiment was mixed as stocks struggled to see robust gains amid the reemerging China worries amid a fresh COVID-19 outbreak in the country. The latest outbreak (across 11 provinces) could spread further, authorities warned. Nevertheless, the Shanghai Composite managed to gain 0.76% during the session while the Hang Seng in Hong Kong added just 0.1%. On the negative side, the Nikkei 225 in Tokyo lost 0.7% at the beginning of the week.
European equities opened marginally higher on Monday, inching higher along with US stock index futures amid the ongoing rally in commodity prices. The pan-European STOXX 600 climbed 0.02% in early trade. Investor focus remains on a slew of fresh quarterly earnings this week including such giants as Facebook, Microsoft, and Deutsche Bank. On the economic front, the European Central Bank meeting due on Thursday will be in focus.
The safe-haven currencies came under pressure on Monday amid the prevailing risk-on tone in the global financial markets. As such, the dollar, the Japanese yen, and the Swiss franc are on the defensive at the start of the trading week, albeit the pressure looks limited at this stage. Despite a weaker greenback, the euro still struggles to regain the 1.1700 barrier, lacking the impetus to challenge the 1.1670 intermediate resistance during the European hours.
