European Stocks Slip as Corporate Results Add to Tariff Gloom
Global stocks slumped as a batch of dismal corporate earnings fueled fresh concerns in a market already grappling with the prospect of a damaging U.S. trade war.
The Stoxx Europe 600 Index fell 0.8%. IAG SA, the owner of British Airways and other airlines, dropped more than 3% after London’s Heathrow airport was closed due to a major fire nearby.
S&P 500 futures fell 0.4%, with the index facing an additional test on Friday in the form of so-called triple witching, an event that can trigger volatility as $4.5 trillion worth of options contracts are about to expire.
Hong Kong’s tech gauge fell 3.4%. Investors are facing an increasingly gloomy global economic outlook, with President Donald Trump planning a broad set of tit-for-tat tariffs on April 2. While the Federal Reserve indicated this week that it sees room to cut interest rates, many economists worry that the inflationary impact of tariffs will discourage central banks from providing support to a slowing economy. "You've seen President Trump's policies inject the market with a wave of uncertainty that we haven't seen in years," Todd Jablonski, global head of multi-asset and quantitative investing at Principal Asset Management, said on Bloomberg Television.
Source: Bloomberg
