LONDON —
European and
US stock markets rose Wednesday after recent sharp losses, but the
euro struck a five-year low against the dollar as traders weighed widespread
economic unrest.
اضافة اعلان
Meanwhile, Europe’s
Dutch TTF gas price bounded higher after
Russia’s energy giant Gazprom stopped
gas supplies to Bulgaria and Poland, but remained well below levels hit last
month.
The two EU member
nations had failed to pay in rubles despite President Vladimir Putin announcing
that Russia would no longer accept payments in other currencies — a retaliation
for the West’s economic sanctions against Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine.
Traders on
Wednesday were unpicking “the familiar concerns about tech earnings, inflation,
interest rates,
China’s lockdown ... and the war in Ukraine”, said Markets.com
analyst Neil Wilson.
In afternoon
trading, London was up 0.5 percent, while both Paris and Frankfurt edged 0.2
percent higher.
On Wall Street, the
main indices pushed modestly higher after sharp losses Tuesday.
Tech firms, who
rely on debt to drive growth, led Wall Street’s plunge on fears that the
Federal Reserve is at the beginning of a period of sharp interest-rate
increases aimed at taming scorching inflation, with the Nasdaq Composite
tumbling four percent.
It pushed 0.4
percent higher, as did the S&P 500, while the Dow rose 0.5 percent.
Patrick J. O’Hare
said that “the major indices are trading higher this morning, although it is
unclear if they are higher because the indices have been taking a beating of
late or if they are higher because of some relief following the latest batch of
earnings results”.
The downbeat mood
over the economy has been compounded by weak earnings from some of the world’s
biggest companies.
The euro dropped
under $1.06 to record its lowest level since January 2017. Analyst Wilson said
the “market clearly believes the Fed is going to town on rate hikes and the ECB
is going to sit on its hands and do nothing”.
Asian stock markets
earlier closed lower but suffered losses less sharp than seen Tuesday on Wall
Street.
In contrast however,
Shanghai bounced on Wednesday following a report that
Chinese President Xi Jinping had committed to boosting infrastructure construction as a means of
accelerating the economy.
The comments were
the latest from China’s top brass, which has made a series of promises in
recent weeks to kickstart growth.
However, analysts say this has been offset by the
leaders’ refusal to back away from their strict COVID lockdown strategy.
Oil prices — under pressure recently owing to worries about
weaker Chinese demand — fell again back towards $100 per barrel.
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