Global stocks were mostly down Monday as South Korean and U.S. joint military drills have kept financial markets on edge while investor await an important meeting later in the week of central bankers.
European shares were down during early Monday trading. The CAC in France was down 0.6% while the DAX in Germany shed over 0.5% and Britain’s FTSE fell 0.2%.
Wall Street is expected to open down as well, with futures on the Dow off 0.2%, and the S&P 500 futures are 0.3% down.
The South Korea and U.S. military drills began their annual military exercises jointly that could add to tensions with North Korea. The exercises have the possibility of stoking more geopolitical tensions which will add to jitters on Wall Street, given the threats of late by both leaders of the U.S. and North Korea.
Officials from central banks across the globe will meet for a three-day annual conference in Wyoming from Thursday.
Investors might scrutinize remarks from the bank policy makers including Janet Yellen the Federal Reserve Chairwoman and Mario Draghi the European Central Bank president for hints on future interest rate movement as well as stimulus programs, which have implications for stock markets around the globe.
China’s markets were helped thanks to a surge in China Unicoms shares. Shares resumed their trading on Monday after they had been suspended four months, and jumped the maximum of 10% allowed daily in Shanghai after the telecom confirmed its plan to raised close to $12 billion through placement of private shares to large investors, which included Alibaba, Baidu and Tencent.
The plan was announced late last week, but the announcement was withdrawn creating some confusion. Hong Kong shares of Unicom, which were suspended since last Wednesday jumped by 10% as well.
The Nikkei 225 in Japan lost over 0.4% to end the day while the Kospi in South Korea fell 0.1%. The Hang Seng in Hong Kong increased by 0.5% while the Shanghai Composite was up 0.5%.
U.S. futures for crude oil were down 5 cents and are now at $48.46 per barrel. The contract was up 3% or $1.42 to end Friday at $48.51, but Brent crude the standard internationally was down 22 cents in London to $52.51 per barrel.
