Dubai:
Last week’s rally in global stocks cooled off on Monday amid geopolitical uncertainty and as investors gave a thumps-down to the Deutsche Bank’s restructuring plans.
The Stoxx Europe 600 Index was down less than half a per cent at 373.68. The FTSE 100 Index was down 0.40 per cent at 7,344.45. The Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were down 0.28 per cent lower at 20,923.00. The S&P 500 futures was down 0.34 per cent at 2,373.25.
“A bit of heightened geopolitical risk arising from North Korea along with Deutsche Bank’s news are very much weighing on markets today,” said Naeem Aslam, chief market analyst with Think Markets in London. Deutsche Bank shares fell more than 6 per cent.
The US markets have been on record-breaking gaining streak as expectations of fiscal spending and tax cuts, which has spurred the so called Trump Trades.
Markets would be watching at non-farm payrolls to get directions ahead of a possible rate hike from the US Federal Reserve. The Fed officials are due to meet on March 14-15.
However UBS is still overweight on US markets on the back of robust US growth and earnings of companies.
“We continue to be overweight on global equities as well US equities specifically due to the continued strong economic and earnings improvements,” Max Kunkel, ultra high net worth investment strategist at UBS Wealth Management.
Meanwhile, the dollar slipped as investors took profits after the currency’s boost last week. The dollar index was 0.04 per cent lower at 101.50.
The NYMEX West Texas Intermediate was 0.24 per cent lower at $53.20 per barrel, while Brent crude was down 0.25 per cent lower at $55.76 per barrel.
