European shares fell on Friday as uncertainty across major economies added to headwinds for investors even as the rate easing cycle gets under way, while a global outage hit services from airlines, banks and financial services.
It has been a turbulent week in markets, with a tech selloff sparked by deepening Sino-U.S. trade tensions, uncertainty over U.S. President Joe Biden’s fate in the presidential race, disappointing Chinese economic data and a lacklustre third plenum outcome casting a shadow over the global mood.
In the foreign exchange market, Tokyo’s recent bouts of intervention also kept traders on edge.
“We could just be getting a taste of things to come. And that is more turbulence,” said Matt Simpson, senior market analyst at City Index.
On Friday, major U.S. airlines ground flights citing communications issues, while other carriers, banks and media companies around the world reported system outages were disrupting their operations.
LSEG Group’s LSEG.LWorkspace news and data platform suffered an outage that affected user access worldwide, causing disruption across financial markets.
The pan-European Stoxx fell 0.6 per cent, while London stocks .FTSE fell 0.7 per cent in early trading.
In Asia, MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan slid 1.6 per cent and was headed for its worst week in three months with a nearly 3-per-cent loss.
S&P 500 futures tacked on 0.16 per cent, while Nasdaq futures gained 0.3 per cent.
Technology stocks continued to struggle in Asia, with South Korea’s tech-heavy index and Taiwan stocks falling 1 per cent and 2 per cent, respectively.
In China, investors were left disappointed over the lack of details provided on the implementation steps for achieving economic policy goals at the conclusion of its closely watched plenum on Thursday.
Chinese officials on Friday acknowledged that the sweeping list of economic goals contained “many complex contradictions,” pointing to a bumpy road ahead for policy implementation.
“Apart from very broad-brush platitudes devoid of stimulus, economic policy references of quality over quantity may also imply willingness to stomach slower overall growth,” said Vishnu Varathan, chief economist for Asia ex-Japan at Mizuho Bank.
The euro was last at US$1.0887, having fallen 0.4 per cent in the previous session after the European Central Bank kept rates on hold as expected but left the door open to a September cut as it downgraded its view of the euro zone’s economic prospects.
“The policy statement gives little away, offering no meaningful changes from June – continuing to stress a data-dependent approach to policy setting,” said Nick Rees, FX market analyst at MonFX.
“We still think that a September cut remains the base case.”
The U.S. dollar was meanwhile on the front foot, distancing itself from a four-month low hit earlier in the week against a basket of currencies.
Sterling eased to US$1.2934 after data showed British retail sales volume fell by more than expected in June.
The dollar was partially underpinned by strong U.S. manufacturing data and jobless figures that did little to suggest a significant slowing in the labour market, though traders are still pricing in a September rate cut from the Federal Reserve.
The yen last traded at 157.41 per dollar, though was headed for a slight gain for the week, helped by suspected bouts of intervention by Japanese authorities to prop up the currency and as an acceleration in the core inflation last month kept alive expectations that the Bank of Japan could soon raise interest rates.
In commodities, oil prices fell. Brent crude futures eased 0.4 per cent to US$84.7 a barrel, while U.S. crude futures slid 0.58 per cent to US$82.34 per barrel.
Gold eased 0.6 per cent, retreating from a record high of US$2,483.60 an ounce hit earlier this week on the prospect of lower global interest rates.
– Reuters
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