Wall Street stocks steadied on Tuesday after a heavy selloff sparked by investor concerns over the health of the US economy, as the pressure on global markets eased.
The S&P 500 was little-changed in early trading while the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.5 per cent following its worst day in two and a half years. In Europe, the Stoxx Europe 600 was down 0.7 per cent, while Germany’s Dax was flat.
The Nasdaq fell 4 per cent on Monday while the S&P 500 index tumbled 2.7 per cent on fears of the economic impact of Donald Trump’s global trade war.
“US data still show an economy in decent shape, but investors are spooked by erratic policy messaging that is undermining consumption and investment,” said Guy Miller, chief market strategist at insurer Zurich. But “US recession fears appear overdone”, he added.
The euro rose 0.7 per cent to $1.091, meaning it has now recovered almost all its losses since the US election, as investors continued to bet on a better growth picture for Europe on the back of Germany’s “whatever it takes” spending plan announced last week.
The single currency was fuelled both by the start of talks between US and Ukrainian delegations in Saudi Arabia that Kyiv hopes can repair its relationship with Washington and pave the way for peace, and hopes that a defence deal in Germany will be sealed soon, said analysts.
Investors “just want to trade the positive narrative for euro at the moment”, said Kamal Sharma, an FX strategist at Bank of America.
The euro has had a lightning rally this month and saw its best week against the dollar since 2009 last week, as investors have increased growth expectations for the eurozone and trimmed expectations for interest rate cuts by the European Central Bank.
The US dollar, which has been dragged lower by concerns over the health of the world’s biggest economy, fell 0.5 per cent against a basket of six trading partners and is down 4.7 per cent since the start of the year.
European infrastructure and defence stocks — which have been rallying after Germany last week announced a historic deal to fund investment in the military and infrastructure — were among the gainers on Tuesday.
Germany’s largest defence group, Rheinmetall, rose 4.6 per cent and Italy’s Leonardo was 3.2 per cent higher, both having surged since the beginning of the year on defence spending hopes. Infrastructure companies also added to their gains, with France’s Schneider Electric up 1.8 per cent.
Asian stocks, which opened sharply lower on Tuesday following the US sell-off, recovered some ground. Japan’s Topix and exporter oriented Nikkei 225 index finished 1.1 and 0.6 per cent lower respectively. China’s CSI 300 advanced 0.3 per cent.
The shifts followed big moves on Wall Street where investors were unnerved by the rhetoric from senior US administration officials about the equity market falls. Trump said there would be a “period of transition” as the economy adjusted to a global trade war.
Technology and industrial companies led the falls in Asia. Taiwan’s chip manufacturer TSMC was down 2.7 per cent and Korea’s Samsung Heavy Industries retreated 2.1 per cent.
Analysts said some investors were taking profits after the sharp rally in US tech stocks over the past year.
“The whole [US] tech sector has risen so much since last April, even with the correction now, it has still rallied a lot,” said Wee Khoon Chong, a senior markets strategist at BNY.
“People worry this is going to be a meltdown, but I don’t think so,” he added.
“When you have a new, better option, people adjust, valuations adjust,” Chong said.
The yield on the 10-year US Treasury was up 0.02 percentage points at 4.23 per cent.
Oil prices rose, with Brent futures — the international benchmark — up 1.2 per cent at $70.13 per barrel, after a fall on Monday amid rising uncertainty over global demand.
