London — European equity markets nudged down on Tuesday as weak Chinese business surveys dampened appetite for risk, while investors braced for a spate of data on the region’s economic health.
Those figures underscored questions over prospects for the Chinese economy, with investors across the world already on edge over growing signs of a two-speed global economy where a robust US outpaces its peers. “Unemployment is down, wages are starting to edge higher but inflation remains very subdued,” he said. “That is the biggest problem for the European Central Bank in terms of its policy response in trying to lift demand in the euro area.”
Banks dragged heavily on the Stoxx 600. Danske Bank, hit by money-laundering scandals, fell more than 6% after lowering its outlook for 2019, while number one eurozone bank Santander also slipped after first-quarter net profit. MSCI’s world equity index, which tracks shares in 47 countries, was flat. S&P futures were marginally in the red in early trading.In currency markets, the weak Chinese data fueled some gains in Japan’s yen, which rallied to a three-week high amid the country’s holiday-thinned trading. But forex traders were focused on whether European data would push currencies out of recent trading ranges.
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