Global stocks mostly tumble on fears of China Covid curbs
Global stocks mostly fell Monday as renewed concerns about harsh coronavirus curbs in China rattled investor sentiment, while oil prices gyrated as Saudi Arabia denied a report that exporters were weighing a production increase.
China's first coronavirus deaths in six months sparked fears officials would reimpose strict, economically painful restrictions to fight outbreaks across the world's second-biggest economy.
Some of Beijing's largest shopping malls were closed Sunday, while others reduced opening hours or banned table service at restaurants as officials urged residents to avoid non-essential travel.
"No one can tell whether (Chinese
President) Xi Jinping would pull back from the reopening plans, which would be another disaster for the Chinese stocks, and for the investor confidence," said Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote Bank.
Paris, London, Frankfurt and Milan all ended in the red on Monday while Wall Street also lost ground.
The fall in European and US stocks came after most Asian markets including Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index and Shanghai ended lower, although Bangkok, Tokyo and Wellington were up. "There is a bit of a risk off sentiment today," said Angelo Kourkafas of Edward Jones. "There's no US data. But there are some headlines about the worsening Covid-19 trends in China, which is adding to global growth concerns," he added. US investors expect subdued trading during the week, which includes the Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday.
This is traditionally a "quiet" stretch for markets, Kourkafas said.
Oil prices plunged more than five percent early in the session following a Wall Street Journal report that said Saudi Arabia, which co-leads the OPEC+ cartel along with Russia, and other members were considering an "increase of up to 500,000 barrels a day."
But the official Saudi Press Agency said on Monday night that energy minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman "categorically denies" the report.
"It is well known, and no secret, that OPEC+ does not discuss any decisions ahead of its meetings," SPA quoted Prince Abdulaziz as saying.
The next OPEC+ meeting is scheduled for December 4.
Among individual companies, Disney jumped 6.3 percent as it ousted Bob Chapek as chief executive and said it would bring back longtime former chief Bob Iger as it struggles to boost the financial performance of its streaming business. President Emmanuel Macron urged an end to "confrontation" as he outlined his vision for France's engagement with the Asia-Pacific region. Macron is attending the 21-strong Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Bangkok as he seeks to relaunch France's strategy for the region in the face of growing US-China competition.
France wants to play a stabilising role in the region to avert confrontation, the French president told a gathering of business leaders on the sidelines of the summit. "We don't believe in hegemony, we don't believe in confrontation, we believe in stability," Macron said.
He said regional powers including France-which has overseas territories in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, including Reunion, New Caledonia and French Polynesia-should play a role.
"We are in the jungle and we have two big elephants, trying to become more and more nervous," Macron said in his speech, which he gave in English. "If they become very nervous and start war it will be a big problem for the rest of the jungle. You need cooperation of a lot of other animals: tigers, monkeys, and so on."
Macron said the international community was facing overlapping crises, from climate change to economic turmoil, and a coordinated response was needed. "Our Indo-Pacific strategy is how to provide dynamic balance in this environment," he said.
"How to provide precisely a sort of stability and equilibrium which could not be the hegemony of one of those, could not be the confrontation of the two major powers." On Russia's war in Ukraine, which he identified as a major source of global instability, he said all countries in Asia and elsewhere needed to recognise their duty to act.
France was working to build "an increasing consensus in order to say this war is also your problem because it will create a lot of destabilisation", Macron said.