MILANO – Russia’s shutdown of gas taps to Europe drags the euro to a 20-year low. This morning the single currency drops below 0.99 at the exchange rate with the dollar with all European indices projected lower. An orientation linked to Moscow’s decision not to resume supplies through Nord Stream, after last week’s suspension. The West attacked the Kremlin spokesman yesterday Dmitry Peskov, kicked off a “great global storm”.
Heavy repercussions also on the gas front, whose prices shot up in the morning. On the Amsterdam market, TTF futures, a benchmark for gas in Europe, flew at start-up at € 275 per megawatt hour, up 28% compared to the close of € 214.7 on Friday.
In Asia, trading remained weak, with Tokyo stopping down by 0.11%. Negotiations stopped in the US in the afternoon, with Wall Street closed for the Labor Day holidays,
European stock exchanges in sharp decline
Heavy start for European stock exchanges following Gazprom’s decision to keep the Nord Stream gas pipeline closed. In London the Ftse 100 drops 0.74% to 7,227 points, in Paris the Cac 40 drops by 1.93% to 6,048 points while in Frankfurt the Dax loses 1.71% to 12,827 points.
China, SME services growth slows down but beyond estimates
The strong rebound in China’s service sector eased slightly in August due to the new outbreaks of Covid-19, but business confidence rose to a nine-month high, in rare positive news for the struggling economy. .
The Caixin Service Purchasing Managers (SMEs) Index fell to 55 from a 15-month high of 55.5 in July, but remained in expansionary territory. The figure is beyond expectations that bet on a drop to 54.