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A look at the day ahead in European and global markets

By Ankur Banerjee, Asia Finance & Markets, Breaking News Correspondent

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Investor sentiment on China remains fragile, with Monday’s wave of optimism giving way on Tuesday to rekindled worries about the world’s second-biggest economy, after the release of a new set of weak data.

The Caixin PMI showed on Tuesday that China’s services activity in August expanded at the slowest pace in eight months, with sluggish demand continuing to dog the economy while stimulus has so far failed to meaningfully revive consumption.

A worker stands on a metal structure in a shopping district in Beijing, China, July 14, 2023. REUTERS/Thomas Peter/file photo

The data, broadly in line with the official services PMI released last week, dragged markets lower.

The MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 0.75%, on course for its worst day since Aug. 25. Against a basket of currencies, the dollar was steady.

Investor attention fixed firmly on China’s largest private property developer, Country Garden. A person close to the company said it had made interest payments on two U.S. dollar bonds, due last month, just as a grace period was scheduled to end on Tuesday.

Country Garden on Friday won approval from onshore creditors to extend a private bond worth 3.9 billion yuan ($536 million).

The Reserve Bank of Australia kept interest rates steady as expected but said further tightening of monetary policy may be required. The Aussie was down about 0.6%, little moved by the decision.

A whole range of data in the European hours will provide further clues on the region’s economy ahead of a European Central Bank policy meeting next week.

ECB President Christine Lagarde, noting price swings due to changes in the labour and energy markets as well as geopolitical turmoil, said on Monday: “It will be critical for central banks to keep inflation expectations firmly anchored while these relative price changes play out.”

The market is now leaning against a hike at the ECB’s September meeting, after a run of soft data.

In company news, Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk launched its popular Wegovy weight-loss injections in the United Kingdom. Surging demand for the injections, and for its highly effective diabetes drug Ozempic, helped Novo to unseat LVMH as Europe’s most valuable listed company on Friday, ending the French luxury group’s 2-1/2 year-long reign.

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