Press "Enter" to skip to content

GLOBAL MARKETS-Shares fall, dollar dips vs yen after Trump travel curbs

image

Shares fell in Europe and Asia on Monday and the dollar dipped against the safe-haven yen after immigration curbs introduced by Donald Trump added an extra layer of uncertainty to the economic impact of the new U.S. president’s policies.

Wall Street appeared headed for a weaker opening, with e-mini futures contracts on the S&P 500 down 0.3 percent.

The euro fell to an 11-day low against the dollar and German government bond yields pared gains after German inflation in January came in slightly below forecast, easing pressure on the European Central Bank to unwind its stimulus programme.

Trump suspended travel to the United States from Syria, Iraq, Iran and four other countries on national security grounds. The executive order, signed on Friday, triggered huge protests in U.S. cities and raised concern among some in markets over the potential impact of other policy moves.

“Concerns on protectionism appear to be rising after President Trump’s executive order to restrict immigration,” said Adam Cole, head of G10 foreign exchange strategy with RBC in London.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index dropped 0.6 percent, led by a 2 percent fall in euro zone banks and drops in commodity related stocks.

UniCredit shares fell nearly 6 percent after the Italian bank said its end-2016 capital ratios would not meet European Central bank requirements as it prepares to launch a 13 billion euro ($13.9 billion) rights issue.

Trade in Asian shares was thinned by the Lunar New Year. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan lost 0.5 percent.

Australian shares fell 0.9 percent. Japan’s Nikkei fell 0.5 percent as the strong yen weighed on exporters.

“Trump always stated these were policies he would implement,” said James Woods, global investment analyst at Rivkin Securities in Sydney. “This renews concerns about a trade war with China that would significantly affect both the Asian and the global economy.”

The dollar rose 0.5 percent to a 10-day against a basket of currencies, reversing earlier falls.

The euro fell 0.6 percent to $1.0633 and sterling dropped 0.4 percent to $1.25, although the yen was up 0.3 percent at 114.70 per dollar.

In debt markets, German 10-year yields dipped 0.3 basis points to 0.46 percent after inflation hit a 3 1/2-year high but, at 1.9 percent on the year, slightly undershot forecasts.

Yields on lower-rated Italian 10-year bonds rose 10 bps to 2.33 percent.

“Inflation is moving higher and this is fuelling talk about ECB policy, although I expect the ECB is likely to continue to play down tapering,” said ING senior rates strategist Martin van Vliet.

The premium investors demand to hold French 10-year bonds rather than German hit its widest in three years after a poll on Sunday showed conservative candidate Francois Fillon, embroiled in a scandal over allegations of misuse of public funds, losing ground to centrist Emmanuel Macron.

Fillon is favourite to win the election, most likely in a run-off with far-right leader marine Le Pen.

RAND FALLS

A big mover among emerging markets currencies was the South African rand, which fell 1.2 percent to 13.62 per dollar after reports that President Jacob Zuma was considering a cabinet reshuffle in response to calls for his resignation in November. The rand earlier traded down 1.6 percent.

Oil prices fell, weighed down by the reduced appetite for risk resulting from the immigration curbs and by signs of data from Baker Hughes showed U.S. drillers added 15 oil rigs last week. Brent crude last traded down 12 cents at $55.52 a barrel.

Copper fell 0.5 percent to $5,871 a tonne, with trade also thinned by the week-long new year holiday in China.

For Reuters Live Markets blog on European and UK stock markets see reuters://realtime/verb=Open/url=http://emea1.apps.cp.extranet.thomsonreuters.biz/cms/?pageId=livemarkets (Additional reporting by Nichola Saminather in Singapore and Patrick Graham, Jemima Kelly and Dhara Ranasinghe in London; editing by John Stonestreet and Toby Chopra)

(This article has not been edited by DNA’s editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)

Source: dnaindia.com