Europe open: Euro strength weighs on stocks as G20 gets underway
European stocks slipped at the start of trading, weighed down by a mixed close overnight on Wall Street as traders focused on a stronger euro and the headlines coming out of the G20 finance ministers' meeting in Germany.
Airbus Group N.V.
€163.22
17:19 18/03/24
CAC 40
8,148.14
17:00 18/03/24
Deutsche Telekom AG
€21.68
17:30 18/03/24
DJ EURO STOXX 50
4,982.76
23:59 18/03/24
Enel
€6.07
19:00 18/10/22
Financial Services
14,702.39
16:59 18/03/24
FTSE AIM All-Share
736.63
16:50 18/03/24
Panmure Gordon & Co
99.00p
17:09 18/07/17
Xetra DAX
17,932.68
19:24 18/03/24
At 0815 GMT the benchmark Stoxx 600 was down by 0.32% or 1.18 points to 376.55, while Germany's Dax was losing 0.46% to 12,024.76 while the Cac-40 was off by 0.18% at 5,004.16.
Traders were reacting in early trading to an overnight jump in the euro/dollar on the back of remarks from a top ECB official.
Speaking to German daily Handelsblatt, Austrian ECB governing council member Ewald Nowotny said how the US had chosen to sequence its exit from its its ultra-loose monetary policy -- by first ending quantitative easing and then raising interest rates -- might not be the best fit for the Eurozone.
The ECB might choose to lift the interest rate it pays on the money deposited with it by banks before it hikes its main policy rate, the refinance rate, Nowotny also said.
Euro/dollar popped higher following the news, hitting an intra-session high of 1.0783 in overnight trading, while the yield on two-year German government debt was up by two basis points to -0.774%, having fallen as low as -0.95% as recently as 24 February.
At 0836 GMT euro/dollar was drifting down by 0.16% to 1.0755.
Front month Brent crude futures were off 0.194% to $51.64 even after Saudi energy minister Khalid Al-Falih told Bloomberg TV his country would be open to doing whatever it takes, if needed, to restore the oil market to health.
G20 finance ministers meeting in the German resort town of Baden-Baden on Friday and Saturday were expected to focus on international trade and foreign exchange markets given the new US administration's concerns on both fronts.
On the economic calendar for Friday were euro area trade balance and construction output data for January, both due at 1000 GMT, followed by US industrial production and consumer confidence figures at 1315 GMT and 1400 GMT, respectively.
Jet-maker's executives set to be grilled
Airbus was in the hot seat after French authorities began a preliminary probe into possible irregularities involving third-party agents to gain jetliner contracts.
Shares in London-listed Panmure Gordon rocketed 63% after ex-Barclays chief Bob Diamond's private equity firm Atlas Merchant Capital and Qatari investment vehicle QInvest offered to buy it in exchange for £15.5m in cash.
Italian energy utility Enel posted a 17% jump in full-year 2016 net income to €2.57bn despite a 6.7% drop in sales to €70.592bn due to various factors including FX headwinds and lower prices for electricity in mature markets, together with lower production.
Steelmakers in northwestern Germany reached a deal to give 72,000 workers a 2.3% wage hike starting from 1 April, on top of another 1.8% raise due in 2018.
Berlin is sticking to its plans to gradually reduce its stake in Deutsche Telekom, WirtschaftsWoche reported.