US open: Wall Street unphased by Turkish crisis
Wall Street trading began on a positive note despite worries about Turkey's current financial situation continuing to do the rounds.
Markets managed to calm down a touch on Monday, despite the best efforts of Turkish President Ergodan, who labelled the recent losses in the lira as "fake news" during a press conference where he claimed the nation's economy was under attack.
At 1540 BST, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.16% to 25,352.92, while the S&P 500 was picking-up 0.32% to 2,824.32 and the Nasdaq was 0.57% firmer at 7,883.41.
With the Dow Jones nudging higher after the bell, its European peers managed to somewhat ease their losses.
"The US index climbed around 40 points, pushing the Dow back above 25,350; this, in turn, saw the DAX and FTSE roughly halve the decline seen during the morning session, both German and UK indices now down 0.2%. The CAC, meanwhile, actually managed to do a complete 180, crossing 5400 as it rose 0.3%," said SpreadEx's Connor Campbell.
Although the lira did pare some of its losses over the weekend, its slide soon resumed, with the currency hitting a new record low in early Asian trading. The weakness in the lira spread to other currencies, hitting the South African rand, the Russian ruble and the Indian rupee.
Analysts argued that investors would have liked to see the central bank take more affirmative action, such as hiking interest rates. Rabobank said the measures announced were seen as just "a first step in several needed to limit further turmoil".
CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson, said, "Against an already difficult geopolitical backdrop, coming as it has on the back of rising concerns over an escalation between the US and China on trade, the implementation of new sanctions against Russia last week, this growing crisis in Turkey appears to be giving investors too many balls to juggle.
"The bigger concern is that last week's tariff escalation by the US could merely be the beginning of further measures to exert economic pressure on Turkey, which in turn could create further ripple out effects," he added.
On the corporate front, electric car maker Tesla ticked up 0.24% after revelations over the weekend that it was being sued over claims made by chief executive Elon Musk's via Twitter that he was considering taking the company private.
Elsewhere, shares of clothing group VF Corp dropped 5% in early trade after the Lee and Wrangler owner said it will spin off its denim business into an independent public company.
Microsoft gained 0.17% following reports that the company's chief executive officer Satya Nadella sold almost one-third of his shares.