European Shares Drop at Open, Led Lower by Italian Stocks
European Shares Drop at Open, Led Lower by Italian Stocks
(Bloomberg) -- European shares fell on Thursday as investors digested the latest twists in the Italian budget talks and the potential effects from the Federal Reserve meeting.
The Stoxx Europe 600 Index fell 0.2 percent, with Milan’s FTSE MIB dropping 1.2 percent. The banking, mining and autos sectors led the losses overall in Europe.
“The Main talking point after the Fed statement is the communicated end of the accommodative policy and what it could mean for the dollar and future earnings growth,” said Martin Guri, head of Nordic strategy at Kepler Cheuvreux. “More short-term, there will be a lot of technical re-positioning and trading, i.e. window dressing ahead of the month and quarter end.”
The buzz surrounding Italian budget talks turned up a notch again, as details on the country’s 2019 budget are expected later, however with a report that it may be postponed, which caused Italian government bonds to slide.
Fund managers at Credit Suisse and Brooks Macdonald Asset Management said they would rather take the risk of plunging into an emerging-market crisis than buy European equities.
--With assistance from Ksenia Galouchko.
To contact the reporter on this story: Hanna Hoikkala in Stockholm at hhoikkala@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Celeste Perri at cperri@bloomberg.net, Blaise Robinson
©2018 Bloomberg L.P.