Stock market news: European shares broadly steady after Wall Street bloodbath

Reuters / Lucas
Jackson

• European stocks are broadly holding firm, although some
  indexes are seeing losses on Thursday as the sell-off
  gripping global markets moves into another day.
• Losses on the continent are muted, with Britain’s FTSE
  100 the biggest loser of major indexes, down around
  0.6%.
• A handful of European indexes, including Italy’s FTSE
  MIB and France’s CAC 40, are trading higher, up 0.7% and 0.3%
  respectively.
• Drops follow a near 4% loss for Japan’s Nikkei during
  the Asian trading session, and a bloodbath on Wall Street on
  Wednesday.

European stocks are broadly holding steady on Thursday, although
some indexes are nursing losses as the sell-off gripping global
markets moves into another day, following a tough session in Asia
which saw Japan’s benchmark Nikkei share index lose almost 4% of
its value.

Losses in Europe are far more muted than the Nikkei’s fall, but
smaller indexes in nations including Switzerland and Belgium have
lost more than 1% in the first 45 minutes of trading, while
Britain’s FTSE 100 is the biggest loser of the major indexes,
trading down around 0.6%. 

A handful of European indexes, including Italy’s FTSE MIB and
France’s CAC 40, are actually trading higher, up 0.7% and 0.3%
respectively.

Thursday’s falls in both Asia and Europe stem from a bloodbath of
a day in the USA on Wednesday, which
saw the Nasdaq lose more than 4%, and the Dow Jones drop more
than 600 points, or 2.4%. The Nasdaq’s fall on the day pushed
the index into correction territory.

A combination of worries have weighed on Wall Street in the
past few weeks, with some anxious the Federal Reserve’s plans for
raising interest rates further are set to restrict growth.

Adding to concerns, China reported last week that economic
growth fell to the lowest level in a decade in the third quarter,
exacerbating concerns about the country’s economic
slowdown.

“What makes the latest volatility more troubling is that
it’s been difficult to identify one specific cause,” Kerry Craig,
a global market strategist at JPMorgan Asset Management said on
Thursday morning.

“There are many symptoms but no one can diagnose the
illness,” she said. “Geopolitics, rising bond US bond yields, a
more hawkish looking US Federal Reserve, slowing Chinese growth,
a strong US dollar and the already well known problems in some
emerging economies have all contributed to the market
unease.”

European stocks must also contend with the European Central
Bank’s upcoming October meeting later on Thursday. The meeting is
not expected to contain any great surprises, with policy and
guidance likely to be unchanged from the central bank’s last
meeting in September.