Stock prices on the US and European stock exchanges mostly fell on Monday, as fears of a recession created instability in financial markets. The British pound fell to record lows against the US dollar on those concerns, and oil prices also fell.
Wall Street’s Dow Jones Industrial Average and Standard & Poor’s 500 fell by at least 1% to end the trading session at their lowest levels this year.
London’s stock index rose slightly, recovering from an initial drop that followed the pound’s decline on concerns about the state of Britain’s economy. The Frankfurt and Paris stock market indices fell.
The British pound briefly hit an all-time low of $1.0350 against the US dollar on Monday. On the other hand, the value of the euro against the dollar temporarily fell to a new 20-year low – 0.9554 dollars per euro.
Interest rates on 10-year government bonds hit decade highs in France, Germany and Italy a day after an alliance of right-wing parties won Italian parliamentary elections. However, the Italian stock market was up as the market assessed the future political landscape.
“Time will tell how successful the new one will be [Itālijas] government, but the prospect of some political stability is creating a slight relief-driven rise” in the stock market today, said Craig Erlam, an analyst at online trading platform OANDA.
Oil prices fell as a strong US dollar put pressure on them and continued worries about oil demand.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.1% to 29,260.81 on Monday, the Standard & Poor’s 500 fell 1.0% to 3,655.04, and the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.6% to 10,802.92 points.
London’s FTSE 100 rose less than 0.1% to 7,020.95 on Monday, Frankfurt’s DAX 30 fell 0.5% to 12,227.92 and Paris’ CAC 40 fell 0.2% up to 5769.39 points.
WTI crude oil fell 2.6% to $78.71 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Monday. The price of “Brent” crude oil on the London exchange decreased by 2.4% to 84.06 dollars per barrel.
The euro was down from $0.9687 to $0.9611 per euro on Monday, the British pound was down from $1.0859 to $1.0689 per pound, and the dollar was up against the Japanese yen from 143.31 to 144.72 yen per dollar. The euro rose against the British pound from 89.29 to 89.87 pence per euro.
