Home ›› 27 Aug 2021 ›› Stock
World shares tapped the brakes on Thursday as China troubles struck again, while Europe’s bond markets steadied after confident-sounding ECB policymakers had caused their sharpest selloff in six months.
The Federal Reserve’s annual Jackson Hole policy symposium on Friday made investors steer clear of major moves but there was plenty going on to make the wait interesting.
Asia had seen its first post-Covid outbreak interest rise in South Korea overnight. Chinese markets (.CSI300) had tumbled after the country’s most indebted property developer Evergrande (3333.HK) warned of a 39 per cent slump in profits, Japan suspended Moderna’s COVID vaccine, while the mood of Germany’s consumers was darkening again.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index (.STOXX) was down 0.4 per cent, with mining (.SXPP), travel and leisure (.SXTP) and retail (.SXRP) stocks among the biggest losers. The return of risk aversion steadied euro zone government bond yields ahead of European Central Bank meeting minutes later in the day.
“The most interesting thing we got was the euro sovereign bond market coming alive yesterday,” Saxo Bank’s head of FX strategy John Hardy said, pointing to Wednesday’s sharp pop up in yields that had also pushed up the euro.
“It feels like the market is very complacent though (about the Jackson Hole symposium) and the bar for a surprise is pretty much non-existent.”
Wall Street’s main indexes had notched their latest record high on Wednesday but Asia’s session had been far more bumpy.
