This post was originally published on this site
European stocks tumbled on Wednesday, tracking losses in Asia and on Wall Street, as investors remain caught up in worries about inflationary pressures, with the minutes of the Federal Reserve’s latest meeting swinging into focus for later.
Those losses came as the No.1 cryptocurrency bitcoin
BTCUSD,
was in the grips of a severe selloff.
After a weak day in Asia, the Stoxx Europe 600
SXXP,
fell 2.1% to 433.71, with similar losses seen for the German DAX
DAX,
and French CAC 40
PX1,
The FTSE 100 indexes
UKX,
was down 1%.
U.S. stocks were deep in the red in early trading, giving up May gains as investors awaited the minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee meeting of April 27-28 to be released later on Wednesday. Markets will be on the lookout for any indications that the central bank is considering a shift in its accommodative monetary stance.
“The inflation fears, the virus fears, the fears of seeing a slower-than-thought or a delayed recovery due to the new restriction measures on the Indian variant of the coronavirus are all disquieting for the average investor,” said Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote, in a note to clients.
Adding to worries over global inflation, U.K. data showed consumer prices rose 1.5% on the year in April, twice the rate of inflation reported in March, according to the Office for National Statistics.
Oil prices were also under pressure, with crude
CL00,
and Brent futures
BRN00,
dropping over 2% each. Those losses came after data from the American Petroleum Institute reportedly showed an unexpected rise in U.S. crude supplies — 620,000 barrels for the week ended May 14. Report of potential progress on Iran nuclear talks saw oil prices close lower on Wednesday.
Crude oil weakness dragged down shares of heavily weighted energy companies, with Royal Dutch Shell
RDSA,
RDS.A,
BP
BP,
BP,
and Total
FP,
TOT,
each down 2% or more.
But virtually every sector was in the red. Technology names were deep in the red, with heavily weighted semiconductor equipment provider ASML Holding
ASML,
ASML,
dropping nearly 5%. Shares of German business software group SAP
SAP,
SAP,
fell 2%.
A lone outperformer, shares of John Laing
JLG,
surged 11%, after New York private-equity firm KKR & Co.
KKR,
said it has agreed to buy the U.K.-listed infrastructure investor and manager for £2 billion ($2.84 billion) in cash.
