Asia
With China and Hong Kong markets closed for public holidays, South Korea and Japan were exposed to the weaker sentiment coming from Wall Street on Friday.
A rise in the Japanese yen harmed the case for Japan’s equities, as did an earthquake in the country’s industrial city of Osaka.
South Korea’s Kospi was off over 1% on Friday’s close as concerns over US-China trade weighed on investor sentiment in the region.
Europe
With the Federal Reserve, Bank of Japan, and European Central Bank meetings all out of the day, this week is the turn of the Bank of England. Recent economic data has been promising, and inflation is still above target, although falling, but the Bank is not expected to raise interest rates on Thursday.
It’s a big week for central banking with Portugal hosting the heads of the world’s central banks. Bank of England Governor Mark Carney is due to make the annual Mansion House speech on Thursday, an event that is closely watched by the currency markets and financial media.
Eurozone exchanges followed the global weakening trend and the FTSE 100 failed to make progress.
CYBG is to but Virgin Money (VM) after some months of speculation, but the latter’s share price fell 2% on the news.
North America
Among the big US companies reporting this week, Federal Express (FDX) and Oracle (ORCL) are the highlights.
Futures markets suggest another fall for US stocks at the open, with the Dow predicted to fall 100 points to start the new trading week.
Today sees the release of the NAHB housing market index for June, Tuesday is the turn of housing starts and building permits for June. Crude oil inventories are in focus on Wednesday, while Canada’s inflation rate for May will be revealed on Friday. Provisional services and manufacturing PMIs will be in view on Friday.