As Tuesday’s trading session got underway in Europe, the US dollar continued to retreat from the almost two-decade high reached during the previous week. The greenback lost some gas, with the index that measures its performance against a basket of other major currencies dropping almost 1.8% during the last three sessions. There were some expectations that the Federal Reserve, determined to curb inflation, could hike rates by 1 percentage point at the end of the month. However, some of the more hawkish members of the committee that decides the monetary policy have recently been on record saying that a hike of 75 basis points is still their base case. Faced with such declarations, the markets quickly adjusted pricing, shaving some of the gains of the previous week when a 100bp rate hike appeared to be on the cards.
Investors are driving markets lower today, seizing the occasion given by lingering global and local worries to take some profit after a two-day rally. Traders are monitoring updates on the corporate front to assess the nature, depth, and length of the expected coming recession, and if the current rebound in equities can be extended in the short term.
The situation is different in Europe as worries about the energy crisis keep weighing market sentiment down. Investors are struggling to get a clear long-term vision for stocks, torn between the impact of a Russian gas cut on growth, and lingering questions about what will be the ECB’s next move. That said, miners and tech shares are among the worst performers today while utility stocks, such as EDF (+49% in 6 days), have prevented benchmarks from dipping lower.
In addition to corporate news – with today’s report brought by Alstom and PepsiCo – market operators will also pay close attention to macro data with this morning’s EU CPI print as well as a speech from BoE Governor Bailey and the US Building permits data due later this afternoon. Today’s current bearish price action is seen as a normal market correction so far, and the STOXX-50 index is likely to continue rising towards 3,522.0pts/ 3,545.0pts if the current very short-term support level over 3,475.0pts keeps being defended by bull traders.
Experienced writer and journalist, working in the global online trading sector, Steffy is the Editor of LeapRate. She has previous experience as a copywriter and has been with the company since January 2020. Steffy has a British and American Studies degree from St. Kliment Ochridski University in Sofia.
