Italian Political Crisis Sparks Fear in Markets, European Stocks Steady

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Updated: May 30, 2018, 08:08 UTC

Markets remain in risk-off mode again today after Indices fell yesterday to the lowest levels since early May led by Europe as the Italian political crisis deepens.

The Italian President vetoed the nomination for Finance Minister by the populist government last week. The resulting collapse in the coalition led to the President appointing former IMF Director Carlo Conttarelli as Prime Minister. However, Conttarelli is expected to lose a confidence vote in parliament which will lead to new elections as early as July. The Italian Stock market was down 2.66% with losses extending after hours to levels not seen since July 2017 but on Wednesday FTSE MIB adds 0.97%. Asian equities are down again with the Nikkei down 1.5% and the Korean Kospi down 1.57%. European share markets open slightly higher. The Euro has fallen to 1.15100 as Bank of Italy chairman Ignazio Visco said that Italy risks losing the “asset of trust” with investors. Italian bond spreads have risen to the highest levels in four years.

US S&P/Case-Schiller Home Price Index (YoY) (Mar) was 6.8% against an expected 6.4% from a prior 6.8%. This measure has been holding a steady improvement since late 2014 low, with this reading showing a beat on expectations to match the prior reading. USDJPY fell from a high of 109.057 to 108.812 as a result of this data.

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New Zealand Building Permits s.a. (MoM) (Apr) were -3.7% against a previous 14.7% which was revised down to 13.0%. This data is within a range from 20.0 to -12.0. The data, as a result, can appear volatile and can be affected by seasonal factors. NZDUSD fell from 0.69025 to 0.68925 after the data release.

EURUSD is up 0.13% overnight, trading around 1.15541.
USDJPY is down -0.02% in the early session, trading at around 108.730
GBPUSD is up 0.08% this morning trading around 1.32598.
Gold is up 0.02% in early morning trading at around $1,298.99
WTI is down -0.33% this morning, trading around $66.6

This article was written by FxPro

About the Author

Ed Andersoncontributor

Ed Anderson has over 35 years of experience in the financial markets, having worked in London, New York, Toronto, Singapore and Australia. Ed provides in-depth Fundamental and Technical Analysis, as well as frequent market insights on multiple asset classes, to the benefit of FxPro clients.