NEW YORK, Aug 20 — European and US stocks mostly fell yesterday, with investors focused firmly on central bank interest rate hikes as the US dollar rallied.
“Stocks will most likely struggle for direction for the rest of the summer as Wall Street is still uncertain with how aggressive the Fed will be in September,” said OANDA trading platform analyst Edward Moya. The losses in New York resulted in the S&P 500’s first weekly decline after four straight weeks of gains.
“It just reminds people that central banks’ policies have to be hawkish still,” said Karl Haeling of LBBW. “It was really the inflation data both out of the UK and Germany that really gave everything the bearish push.” The dollar meanwhile rose sharply against its main rivals, while oil prices steadied as traders assessed the risk of a possible global recession.Elsewhere, bitcoin slumped some nine per cent as investors shunned risky assets.