25th Jul 2024 06:49
(Alliance News) - European equities are called to open lower on Thursday, as a tech sell-off in the US sends reverberations around global markets.
A stacked diary of corporate earnings in both Europe and across the Atlantic continues on Thursday, with US data also in focus in the afternoon.
IG says futures indicate the FTSE 100 to open 14.6 points lower, 0.2%, at 8,139.09 on Thursday. The index of London large-caps closed down 13.68 points, 0.2%, at 8,153.69 on Wednesday.
The CAC 40 in Paris is called down 0.5%, and the DAX 40 in Frankfurt down 0.4%.
In New York on Wednesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average ended down 1.3%, the S&P 500 fell 2.3% and the Nasdaq Composite plunged 3.6%.
"Many stocks participated in the broad retreat, but losses in mega cap stocks, semiconductor shares, and growth stocks had an outsized impact on index performance," analysts at Briefing.com commented.
In Asia on Thursday, the Nikkei 225 was down 2.9% in late trade, while the S&P/ASX 200 in Sydney was 1.2% lower. In China, the Shanghai Composite was down 0.7%, while the Hang Seng was 1.7% lower.
China's central bank on Thursday unexpectedly cut a medium-term interest rate by the most in more than four years, marking the latest move by authorities to boost economic growth.
The world's second-largest economy has encountered severe headwinds in recent years, as a heavily indebted property sector, sluggish consumption and high youth unemployment weigh on confidence.
Beijing has introduced a host of measures in recent months in a bid to get it humming again, but a full rebound has so far proven elusive.
In a surprise move on Thursday morning, the People's Bank of China slashed the rate for its medium-term lending facility – the interest on one-year loans to financial institutions – to 2.3%, from 2.5%.
The central bank typically makes MLF announcements on a predetermined day in the middle of the month.
The last time the rate was cut was in August, but the latest is the biggest since April 2020.
The pound was quoted at USD1.2891 early on Thursday, down from USD1.2926 at the time of the London equities close Wednesday. The euro stood at USD1.0842, fading from USD1.0857. Against the yen, the dollar was trading at JPY152.82, down from JPY153.44.
Brent oil was quoted at USD81.03 a barrel early on Thursday, falling from USD81.75. Gold was quoted at USD2,372.64 an ounce, down from USD2,426.06.
In Thursday's UK corporate calendar, there are half-year results from Anglo American, AstraZeneca, British American Tobacco, Lloyds Banking Group, Relx, Rentokil Initial and Vodafone. Trading updates are expected from BT and Vodafone.
The economic calendar has the latest IFO business climate reading in Germany at 0900 BST, before US gross domestic product data at 1330 BST.
ING analysts commented: "We will also get the [second quarter] personal consumption expenditures and core PCE numbers, which will give a steer to the June PCE data released tomorrow, though not a foolproof one as there are likely to be some revisions to historical data that mean you can't just back the number out with any confidence."
By Eric Cunha, Alliance News news editor
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