Investors continue to express worries about a potential economic slowdown
Wall Street stocks bounced on Friday but still suffered deep losses for the week as investors continued to express worries about a potential economic slowdown after the Federal Reserve raised its benchmark interest rate by the most since 1994. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.13%, while the S&P 500 gained 0.22% and the Nasdaq jumped 1.43%. The Dow closed again under the 30,000 mark, down 4.8% for the week. In individual stocks, shares of Amazon gained 2.5% while Apple and Netflix added more than 1%.
Asian stock markets were mostly lower on Monday, with China bucking the negative sentiment as PBOC holds benchmark rates unchanged. The People’s Bank of China kept the 5-year and 1-year Loan Prime Rate unchanged at 4.45% and 3.70% respectively. Still, the Shanghai Composite index failed to preserve intraday gains to finish less than 0.1% lower. Meanwhile, the MSCI’s index of Asia-Pacific shares ex-Japan dropped 0.25% whereas Japan’s Nikkei 225 index fell 0.74%.
In Europe, stocks opened slightly higher as investor sentiment has improved somehow. On the data front, German producer prices jumped 33.6% year-on-year in May, their largest increase on record. In individual stocks, Renault rallied nearly 6% after Jefferies upgraded the company’s stock to “buy” from “hold.” Elsewhere, European Central Bank Governing Council member Stournaras said earlier today that they must remain focused on medium-term inflation objectives. He also added that the monetary policy could afford to be gradual.
Meanwhile, the dollar is marginally lower at the start of the week, losing some ground versus major counterparts. The USD index failed to regain the 105.00 mark ahead of the weekend and has been struggling since then. The buck was last seen changing hands around 104.45%, losing 0.25% on the day. EURUSD has settled marginally above 1.0500 but is yet to confirm the latest recovery on a daily closing basis as the common currency remains vulnerable to fresh losses in the near term.
