European stocks stabilize after ECB-led selloff
LONDON — European markets rose slightly on Friday, recovering only some of the losses made the previous day, when the European Central Bank failed to deliver on bold promises of action to overcome the region’s debt crisis.
A week after vowing to do whatever it takes to keep the euro common currency intact, ECB President Mario Draghi offered no concrete new measures, only a plan that is to go through committee approval.
After rising for most of the previous week, stock markets fell sharply and the borrowing rates of Spain and Italy jumped higher, suggesting investors are more concerned they will need financial aid.
Attention is now turning to the monthly U.S. payrolls report due later Friday which provides a closely watched indicator of how the world’s biggest economy is faring. U.S. hiring was likely sluggish in July for a fourth straight month, held back by slower economic growth and an uncertain outlook. Analysts forecast that employers added 100,000 jobs last month, according to a survey by FactSet.
By late morning in Europe, Britain’s FTSE 100 was up 1.1 percent to 5,723.44, while Germany’s DAX added 1.6 percent to 6,710.53. France’s CAC 40 climbed 1.6 percent to 3,282.53.
Wall Street was set to gain with Dow futures up 0.6 percent and S&P 500 futures up 0.7 percent.
The euro was 0.5 percent higher at $1.2243, but the bond markets failed to recover much. While Italy’s 10-year bond yield edged down after the previous day’s surge, Spain’s continued to inch higher. It was at 7.07 percent, a level considered unsustainable in the longer term.
Investors had hoped the ECB would resume purchases of government bonds to lower the borrowing costs of financially struggling countries such as Spain and announce other measures to calm a crisis that is dragging down global economic growth.
But Germany, which is Europe’s biggest economy, is opposed to the ECB operating outside its mandate to control inflation and wants any government bond purchases to be financed by other funds set up to deal with the crisis.
The problem with the German approach, some analysts say, is that Europe’s bailout funds lack the firepower to make much of a difference if the financial situation in a big economy such as Spain or Italy dramatically worsens.
A surge in Spain’s borrowing costs early last week underlined that a bailout of one of Europe’s largest economies is probably unaffordable and could splinter the common currency.
Earlier, Asian indexes closed lower, as traders there caught up with the ECB news. Japan’s Nikkei 225 stock average finished down 1.1 percent at 8,555.11, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was 0.2 percent lower to 19,652.50. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 shed 1.1 percent to 4,221.50, and South Korea’s Kospi dropped 1.1 percent to 1,848.68. The Shanghai Composite rose 1 percent to 2,132.80.
In energy trading, benchmark crude was up 96 cents at $88.09 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell $1.78 to close at $87.13 on Thursday in New York.