Five Things You Need to Know to Start Your Day: Europe
Get up to speed with what the markets are monitoring
Good morning. Is the UK closer to an interest-rate cut? Hermès defies the luxury downturn. And Apple slips out of the top five handset makers in China. Here’s what people are talking about.
The assumptions that have driven this year’s global financial markets are being rapidly rethought. In bond and currency markets, investors are racing to redeploy money amid mounting doubt over the outlook for the US economy, which has led to speculation that the Federal Reserve may end up cutting interest rates faster or deeper than planned. Helping to drive the shift: A weakening American consumer, which is showing up in a rash of disappointing corporate earnings. At the same time, stockholders have suddenly grown skeptical that technology companies’ massive investments in artificial intelligence will pay off any time soon. As a result, investors have dumped shares of big winners such as Nvidia and Broadcom. Copper and other industrial metals are also reversing a recent run-up, with China’s slowdown playing a role in their decline along with the worries over the US and tech.