Stocks retreat as traders eye more rate hikes / Photo: Kazuhiro NOGI - AFP
Stocks retreat as traders eye more rate hikes
Equity markets declined Friday as traders eyed more interest-rate rises after another week of hikes by central banks to combat elevated inflation.
Oil prices extended heavy losses on concerns high borrowing costs would weigh further on demand.
A keenly-watched survey showed eurozone economic activity worsened in June to a five-month low, hit hard by a fall in industrial production.
The eurozone entered a technical recession at the start of the year.
After leading Asian equity indices closed out the week with some sharp losses, "European stock markets headed lower again to cap a pretty downbeat week", noted Neil Wilson, chief market analyst at Finalto.
"The mood is changing from inflation risk to growth risk."
Optimism that characterised the first half of June -- fuelled by hopes the Federal Reserve was close to the end of its hiking cycle -- has given way to concern that the US central bank still had several more rises planned to bring down stubbornly-high inflation.
The prospect of more US hikes was boosting the dollar Friday.
It comes as the Bank of England on Thursday lifted its key rate more than expected, while Switzerland and Norway also tightened.
That followed hikes last week in the eurozone, Australia and Canada.
Turkey changed course this week by almost doubling borrowing costs after cutting them for two years.
Traders were keeping an eye on Beijing after a hoped-for raft of stimulus measures for the Chinese economy came to nothing.
While China's central bank has cut borrowing costs, there has been very little by way of policy detail from officials.
The yen was stuck around 143 per dollar, a level not seen since November, while it was wallowing at 15-year lows against the euro, as the Bank of Japan refuses to lift rates.
While Japanese inflation remains at multi-decade highs, the BoJ says it is down to temporary factors.
Nevertheless, the central bank is under increasing pressure to tighten monetary policy.
On the corporate front, shares in Siemens Energy plummeted Friday after the company warned that technical problems at its wind turbine unit were worse than thought.
Its stock price plunged by one third after Siemens Gamesa CEO Jochen Eickholt told reporters "the quality problems go well beyond what had been known hitherto".
The company said it was setting aside more than one billion euros ($1.1 billion) to deal with faulty components.
- Key figures around 1100 GMT -
London - FTSE 100: DOWN 0.4 percent at 7,475.32 points
Frankfurt - DAX: DOWN 0.8 percent at 15,862.36
Paris - CAC 40: DOWN 0.3 percent at 7,183.54
EURO STOXX 50: DOWN 0.5 percent at 4,284.84
Tokyo - Nikkei 225: DOWN 1.5 percent at 32,781.54 (close)
Hong Kong - Hang Seng Index: DOWN 1.7 percent at 18,889.97 (close)
Shanghai - Composite: Closed for holiday
New York - Dow: FLAT at 33,946.71 (close)
Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.0870 from $1.0958 on Thursday
Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.2717 from $1.2746
Dollar/yen: UP at 143.24 from 143.13 yen
Euro/pound: DOWN at 85.46 pence from 85.94 pence
West Texas Intermediate: DOWN 1.4 percent at $68.51 per barrel
Brent North Sea crude: DOWN 1.4 percent at $73.10 per barrel
T.A.Smith--RTC
