investingLive European markets wrap: Trump revitalises risk trades after heavy slump | investingLive
Headlines:
Markets:
- CHF leads, EUR lags on the day
- European equities lower; S&P 500 futures down 0.3%
- US 10-year yields up 1.2 bps to 3.988%
- Gold down 0.8% to $4,292.92
- WTI crude oil down 0.1% to $57.38
- Bitcoin down 1.8% to $105,946
For the better part of European morning trade, things were quiet with the risk mood looking rather dour after the selloff in stocks yesterday. That carried over to today with US-China trade tensions also seemingly on edge, awaiting further developments. And we got that with US president Trump officially confirming a meeting with China president Xi Jinping in two weeks’ time.
Trump also sounded less worried and angry about the whole China situation, reacting calmly in an interview with Fox Business. He said that he thinks that “we’ll be fine with China” and that high tariffs were “unsustainable”, adding that he doesn’t see them lasting but wouldn’t rule it out entirely.
So, that’s leading to a stirring bounce in risk assets in the handover to US trading here now. S&P 500 futures slumped all throughout the session, being down by around 1.3% before rebounding now to pare losses down to just 0.3% on the day. Meanwhile, 10-year yields in the US also bounced back up from lows around 3.94% to around 3.98% at the moment.
In the major currencies space, the dollar also trimmed early losses with USD/JPY in particular coming back up strongly from 149.40 earlier in the session to climb back above 150.00 now. The pair is still down 0.2% on the day but it’s a win for the dollar, at least for now, as we look to US trading.
EUR/USD was just marginally higher but is now trading flat at 1.1690 while GBP/USD is also just holding little changed at around 1.3437 currently. Meanwhile, AUD/USD cut losses from around 0.6450 to 0.6485 now – also trading flat on the day.
As for European stocks, the risk rebound isn’t translating to much of a meaningful bounce here overall. Investors are having to play catch up to Wall Street losses overnight as well and the DAX is still keeping down by over 1.6%. France’s CAC 40 index is at least paring a chunk of its losses, being down by just 0.2% on the day currently.
Elsewhere, gold enjoyed a solid run up earlier in the day after a volatility spike in Asia. The precious metal fell to $4,280 during Asia trading before rallying back up to $4,370 levels in European trading. The momentum held for a while before it slowly waned and has now completely dissipated as the risk mood picks up. Gold is now down 0.8% to $4,292 as profit-taking and exhaustion also factors into the equation.
To round things off, we also had crypto action with Bitcoin slumping to fresh four-month lows on the day. The cryptocurrency briefly fell below $104,000 but is still threatening a break under its 200-day moving average for now. It will be the first time it drops below both key daily moving averages since April, so there’s some technical danger to be wary of before the weekend.