Stocks Slip on Brexit, Trade Worries
16 Ottobre 2019 - 12:14PM
Dow Jones News
By Will Horner
U.S. stock futures and European equities slipped Wednesday as
concerns lingered over Brexit talks and a U.S.-China trade
deal.
The pan-continental Stoxx Europe 600 index edged 0.4% lower as
talks toward a draft plan for Britain to leave the European Union
continued, but investors reassessed hopes that any deal would be
approved by the U.K.'s Parliament.
"Why investors have been so optimistic on Brexit I don't know,"
said Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets U.K.For
all the euphoria about the two sides being close to a deal, [Prime
Minister Boris Johnson] still needs to get the deal through
Parliament and arguably he has a harder job there because he
doesn't have a majority in Parliament."
A combination of profit-taking after a recent run of gains for
European equities and those doubts were weighing on the region's
indexes, he said.
The British pound, which had hit a four-month high against the
U.S. dollar a day earlier, fell 0.6%, while the FTSE 100 gauge for
U.K. equities slipped 0.2% and the broader FTSE 250 fell 0.8%.
U.S. stock futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average were
down 0.3%. Changes in futures don't necessarily predict moves after
the opening bell.
Chinese stocks edged lower on concerns that tensions with the
U.S. over the Hong Kong protests would make striking a trade deal
more complicated.
The Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.4% after the U.S. House of
Representatives passed a series of bills backing pro-democracy
protesters in Hong Kong, drawing a strong rebuke from China. A
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman warned the U.S. against meddling
in Chinese affairs and said the bill would damage relations between
the two nations.
The development may complicate efforts to reach a trade
agreement, analysts said.
"We got sideswiped by those headlines from China," said Stephen
Innes, a market strategist for currency broker AxiTrader in
Bangkok. "I'm not sure much is going to actually come from it, but
it's just another thing to deal with."
Later Wednesday, the focus will shift to a swath of earnings
reports from some of the U.S.'s biggest bellwethers, including Bank
of America and PNC Financial Services Group, before Wall Street
opens. IBM and Netflix will also report their third-quarter
earnings after markets close in the U.S.
Investors will also get fresh cues on the health of the U.S.
economy when the Commerce Department releases data on retail sales,
providing an indication of whether American household spending
remains a bulwark against signs of a global slowdown.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 16, 2019 05:59 ET (09:59 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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