The across-the-board losses that swept Asian markets Thursday have carried over into Europe.
Britain’s benchmark FTSE index is down 1.2% at the midday mark in the trading session, with the CAC-40 in France trading 1.1% lower and Germany’s DAX index down just over 1%.
Hours earlier, Japan’s benchmark Nikkei index finished a full 1% lower. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index lost 1.5%, while Shanghai’s Composite index finished 1.3% lower. Mumbai’s Sensex lost just over 1%. The S&P/ASX index was down 0.7%. South Korea’s KOSPI index plunged 3.6%, and the TSEC index in Taiwan dropped 3.2%.
Markets in the two regions were dragged down by the U.S. Federal Reserve’s sobering outlook on a post-pandemic recovery the day before.
In minutes of last month’s meeting of the U.S. central bank, released Wednesday, several members of the Reserve said the COVID-19 pandemic “would continue to weigh heavily on economic activity, employment, and inflation in the near term and was posing considerable risks to the economic outlook over the medium term.”
The Fed’s remarks caused a shockwave on Wall Street, sending the Dow Jones, S&P 500 and NASDAQ downward.
In commodities trading Thursday, gold was selling at $1,946.00, down 1.2.% U.S. crude oil was selling at $42.50 per barrel, down 1%, and Brent crude oil was selling at $44.92 per barrel, down 0.9%.
All three U.S. indices are trending negatively in futures trading ahead of Wall Street’s opening bell.
