Global markets dip after weak trade data from China

European stock markets dipped on Wednesday and the US dollar nudged higher as weak Chinese trade data had investors fretting about softening global demand, while attention turned towards next week’s pivotal inflation data and Federal Reserve meeting.

Turkey’s lira plunged to a record low against the greenback as authorities appeared to loosen stabilising measures after the government signalled a move to more orthodox policies.

The pan-European benchmark Stoxx 600 was last down 0.2%. Germany’s DAX, France’s CAC 40 and Britain’s FTSE 100 were lower by 0.1%-0.4%.

Spanish stocks outperformed with shares of Inditex, the world’s biggest fast fashion company, jumping 5.8% after first-quarter results.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan gained 0.5%, led by gains in Hong Kong and Taiwan, while Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 1.8%, its sharpest decline in 12 weeks to snap a four-day winning streak.

Chinese exports shrank much faster than expected in May and imports fell, albeit at a slower pace, as manufacturers struggled to find demand abroad and domestic consumption remained sluggish.

“The Chinese trade data is the latest indicator that tells you there’s nothing good going on in global demand,” said Ben Laidler, global markets strategist at eToro.

“There’s a huge gulf in the global economy between services and manufacturing. This is a warning sign that global growth will slow from here. The question is how much,” Laidler added.

Wall Street futures were slightly lower after the S&P 500 gained 0.2% on Tuesday, gaining support from strengthening bets that the Federal Reserve will hold interest rates steady at its policy meeting next week.

The CBOE’s VIX volatility gauge closed below 14 on Tuesday, its lowest since February 2020.

“The drivers behind the moves higher in equities have been there,” eToro’s Laidler said, noting the debt ceiling deal and evidence that deposits have been returning to the US banking system.

“That’s given markets a little bit of room to run ahead of a US inflation and the Fed meeting next week,” he added.

The two-year Treasury yield, which typically moves in step with interest rate expectations, eased to about 4.5124% in London. The yield on 10-year notes slipped to around 3.687%.

The dollar gained 0.1% against a basket of currencies, while the Turkish lira weakened more than 7% to 23.16/$, its biggest one-day sell-off since the 2021 crash.

“It looks like the central bank’s efforts to fight a stronger dollar is either fading after [President Recep Tayyip] Erdogan’s victory in the latest elections or keeping the lira steady is becoming more difficult and increasingly expensive,” said Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote Bank.

Gold was slightly lower, trading at $1,958 an ounce.

Leading cryptocurrency bitcoin was trading at about $26,800, consolidating after a sharp rebound on Tuesday from as low as $25,350.

The token has been a paradoxical beneficiary of a US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) crackdown on cryptocurrency exchanges, and the classification of tokens including Solana, Cardano and Polygon as securities.

Reuters