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Euro falls on weak German business morale, stocks slip

24 April 2019 23:32 (UTC +04:00)

The euro fell against the U.S. dollar on Wednesday after data showing a surprise deterioration in German business morale stoked fears of slowing global growth and weighed on a gauge of world equity markets, ONA reports quoting Reuters.

The decline in the Munich-based Ifo economic institute’s business climate index bucked expectations for a small improvement and sent U.S. Treasury yields reeling as investors piled into safe-haven bonds.

Reports of a sharp slowdown in Australian inflation also lifted bond prices, while Premier Li Keqiang in China said authorities should not underestimate the difficulties in the Chinese economy, adding to concerns about global growth.

Signals that China has put broader stimulus on hold curbed demand for European equities and overshadowed strong earnings from Credit Suisse and SAP, which led Germany’s DAX index index to close up 0.63% at a six month high.

The 12.6% surge in the German software firm’s shares helped technology post its best days since August 2015, but all other major country indexes in Europe closed lower.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index closed down 0.09%, while MSCI’s gauge of stock performance in 47 countries fell 0.33%.