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ASX set to slide as European stocks fall; China skips rate cut

European stocks fell as bond yields climbed, and Chinese equities dipped after the country’s central bank unnerved investors by skipping an expected rate cut. US markets were closed for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. European markets took centre stage with Wall Street closed. Credit: Getty Images Europe’s STOXX 600 index was last down 0.5 per cent, taking its fall for the year to around 1 per cent, after a 13 per cent increase in 2023. Britain’s FTSE 100 was 0.4 per cent lower and Germany’s DAX was off by 0.5 per cent. The Australian sharemarket is set to retreat, with futures at 5.02am AEDT pointing to a fall of 21 points, or 0.3…

ASX set to slide as European stocks fall; China skips rate cut

European stocks fell as bond yields climbed, and Chinese equities dipped after the country’s central bank unnerved investors by skipping an expected rate cut. US markets were closed for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. European markets took centre stage with Wall Street closed. Credit: Getty Images Europe’s STOXX 600 index was last down 0.5 per cent, taking its fall for the year to around 1 per cent, after a 13 per cent increase in 2023. Britain’s FTSE 100 was 0.4 per cent lower and Germany’s DAX was off by 0.5 per cent. The Australian sharemarket is set to retreat, with futures at 5.02am AEDT pointing to a fall of 21 points, or 0.3…

ASX set to slide as European stocks fall; China skips rate cut

European stocks fell as bond yields climbed, and Chinese equities dipped after the country’s central bank unnerved investors by skipping an expected rate cut. US markets were closed for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. European markets took centre stage with Wall Street closed. Credit: Getty Images Europe’s STOXX 600 index was last down 0.5 per cent, taking its fall for the year to around 1 per cent, after a 13 per cent increase in 2023. Britain’s FTSE 100 was 0.4 per cent lower and Germany’s DAX was off by 0.5 per cent. The Australian sharemarket is set to retreat, with futures at 5.02am AEDT pointing to a fall of 21 points, or 0.3…

Geopolitical tensions and AI dominate start of World Economic Forum

Growing concern that heightened geopolitical tension could damage an already shaky global economy has dominated the start of the annual gathering of the world’s business and political elite in Davos, Switzerland . Three potential flash points – Ukraine, the Middle East and Taiwan – threatened to overshadow the meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) aimed at rebuilding trust after the series of setbacks suffered in the past four years, including war, the Covid-19 pandemic and the cost of living crisis. Meanwhile, a study of global business leaders to mark the start of the gathering in the Swiss mountain resort showed UK chief…

War in the Middle East has put Lebanon on the brink of economic disaster

The recent return of violence to Lebanon derails hope that the worst of the crises that have plagued the country over the past four years have been left behind. After a spiral of hyperinflation, debt default and crumbling public services , modest signs of economic recovery from one of the “ most severe crisis episodes [seen] globally since the mid-19th century ” was predicted for 2024. But this glimmer of optimism has waned as Lebanon risks being dragged into war with Israel. On January 2, Israel assassinated senior Hamas political officer Saleh al-Arouri in south Beirut after daily rounds of Israeli shelling in southern Lebanon…