Europe open: Stocks drift lower amid China flu outbreak, Libya tensions
Dufry AG
n/a
07:46 20/03/24
Stocks on the Continent were drifting slightly lower at the start of the week, amid lacklustre trading given the Martin Luther King holiday in the States.
Qiagen NV
€0.00
10:35 07/05/24
"European equity markets are marginally lower this morning as there has been a lack of major macroeconomic news to spark interest from traders," said David Madden at CMC Markets UK.
"Stocks were in a strong position last week so a bit of a pullback isn’t a high surprise. Trading volumes as well as volatility are likely to be low as it is a public holiday in the US."
Weighing on investor sentiment were reports of 200 confirmed cases of a new SARS-like pneumonia in China, including three deaths.
And in North Africa, over the weekend, the Libyan National Army led by General Khalifa Haftar blocked crude oil exports from the country's eastern half, which was expected to result in a near complete halt to production.
Against that backdrop, as of 1000 GMT the benchmark Stoxx 600 was down by 0.11% to 424.08, while Germany's dax was dipping 0.04% to 13,521.28 and the Cac-40 by 0.32% at 6,080.32.
Looking out to later in the week, investors were waiting on a potentially key speech from the US President at Davos, Switzerland, on Tuesday, followed by an interest rate decision from the European Central Bank.
Dufry was at the bottom of the pile on the Stoxx 600 as investors moved to price-in the fallout for the duty-free shop operator from the outbreak of a new SARS like virus.
Going the other way, stock in Qiagen, the German developer of assay technologies for molecular diagnostics, was extending the previous session's gains on the back of renewed rumours of a potential offer for the company.
The economic calendar was extraordinarily light at the start of the week.
In Franfkfurt, the Bundesbank forecast on Monday that the euro area's largest economy grew just 0.6% in 2019, its slowest pace since 2013.
Also in Germany, the Federal Office of Statistics reported that factory gate prices fell at a year-on-year pace of 0.2% in December (consensus: 0.0%).