World Shares Slip As Investors Worry About Corporate Earnings

Shares were mostly lower in Europe and Asia on Tuesday as investors geared up for a slew of corporate earnings reports, Elaine Kurtenbach reported for the Associated Press (AP) on Oct. 25, 2022.

Photo Insert: India’s Sensex slipped 0.5%.

US futures edged 0.1% higher but oil prices fell back. In London, the FTSE 100 fell 0.6% to 6,972.74 as Britain’s third prime minister this year, Rishi Sunak, prepared to take office and appoint a Cabinet to grapple with the U.K.’s economic and political crises.

Germany’s DAX fell 0.8% to 12,824.91 following the release of a German Business Climate report that was better than expected but overall gloomy, with no “meaningful signal of improvement in the German economy,” Alex Kuptsikevich, FxPro senior market analyst, said in a report.

In Asia, markets remained jittery over the outcome of a Communist Party congress in China, where key reformers were excluded from the highest ranks of ruling party leadership.

Hong Kong’s benchmark edged 0.1% lower, to 15,165.59, failing to hold onto early gains after a 6.4% selloff the day before. The Shanghai Composite index fell less than 0.1%, to 2,976.28.

Chinese stocks have languished after the Communist Party congress awarded leader Xi Jinping an unprecedented third five-year term and installed key Xi allies as top ruling party leaders, vanquishing officials considered pro-market reformers.

The Chinese yuan slid to a 15-year low of 7.3089 to the U.S. dollar after China’s central bank appeared to ease off trying to counter market forces that were pushing the tightly controlled currency lower.

The yuan has declined as US interest rate hikes encouraged banks and other traders to convert money to dollars in search of higher returns, Joe McDonald also reported for AP.

In Asia, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index rose 1% to 27,250.28, while the Kospi in Seoul lost 0.1%, to 2,235.07. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.3% to 6,798.60. India’s Sensex slipped 0.5%, while Taiwan’s benchmark lost 1.5%. On Wall Street on Monday, stocks extended gains from last week as investors geared up for a heavy week of earnings from big technology companies.

The S&P 500 rose 1.2%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 1.3% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite closed 0.9% higher. The Russell 2000 index rose by 0.4%.

Google’s parent company, along with Facebook’s parent, Amazon and Apple are all reporting their latest financial results this week. They are among the priciest stocks in the benchmark S&P 500 and their earnings this week could mean big moves, up or down, for the broader market.

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