EU stocks retreat on Austria lockdown
LONDON: European stock markets fell on Friday and the euro slumped as Austria announced a new strict lockdown to try to curb surging Covid cases, triggering heavy losses for oil prices.
The lockdown in Austria will begin Monday and vaccination against Covid-19 in the eurozone country will become mandatory from February, said Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg.
European stocks “turned red... as a new lockdown in Austria and the prospect of similar action in Germany wiped out earlier gains”, said Craig Erlam, market analyst at Oanda trading group.
Asian stock markets mostly closed higher Friday, but Chinese e-commerce titan Alibaba plunged by more than 10 per cent ater warning of a weaker outlook following China’s crackdown on the tech sector and slowing growth in the world’s second-biggest economy.
With Alibaba a big player on Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index, the market dropped more than one per cent, and other tech firms including Tencent and XD suffered smaller losses.
Other major Asian indices ended the week higher, with Tokyo up as the government announced plans to inject $490 billion into the Japanese economy to kickstart recovery from the pandemic.
Traders had been given a positive lead from
Wall Street overnight, where the S&P 500 and Nasdaq indices ended at record highs.
Focus remains on surging inflation that is expected to push central banks like the Bank of England (BOE) and Federal Reserve to raise interest rates sooner than had been expected.
Data this month have shown prices rising at levels not seen for three decades in the United States, 18 years in Canada and 10 years in Britain owing to soaring energy costs and global supply chain snarls.
Finance chiefs in some countries including South Korea and New Zealand have already hiked interest rates, while the Fed has announced plans to wind down its vast cash stimulus programme.