European stocks slid slightly lower on Tuesday morning while Treasuries rose following a mixed trading session in Asia overnight, as traders still digest the effects of Saturday’s attack on the Saudi oil facilities. Even if volatility levels remain high on certain stock indices, the lack of direction is clear as investors adopted a “wait and see” trading stance, testing the market sentiment over riskier assets.
Photo by Arun Raj.
Today’s disappointment came from China overnight after the PBoC refused to lower its one-year rate on medium term loans, maintaining it at 3.3%, as investors were betting on a more dovish monetary policy following a week of poor data from the country. This had an immediate bearish effect on both Chinese and Hong-Kong shares while Japanese stocks absorbed the shock after President Trump announced an initial trade accord had been reached between Washington and Tokyo.
Now investors’ focus will shift back to economic data, with the Eurozone CPI release as well as the FOMC meeting due tomorrow, which will offer traders more clues on both EU and US potential monetary policy developments while trade talks between Washington and Beijing are supposed to resume in a week and a half from now. The best performance on the old continent is that of the SMI-20 index in Switzerland, as the country’s large exporting groups benefit from rising prices on the EURCHF pair. The market has registered a rebound over its short-term bullish trending, towards 9,935.0pts, and is now heading back to the 10,000.0pts price level.
