Global stocks jittery as Nancy Pelosi defies China with Taiwan visit

Global stocks were jittery on Tuesday as US House speaker Nancy Pelosi landed in Taiwan in defiance of Chinese threats.

Dublin

At home, Euronext Dublin was up 0.6 per cent on what was another muted day for the market.

Among the financials, Bank of Ireland was up just over 1 per cent ahead of results on Wednesday, while AIB was flat on the day.

Kerry Group, which reported results on Friday that showed its revenue increased by 13.3 per cent to €4.1 billion in the first half of 2022 compared with the same period last year, ended the day up 2 per cent.

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Ryanair continued recent trends by underperforming and finished the day down almost 3 per cent. “The sector was pretty much flat so it was a notable underperformer among its peers,” said one trader.

Elsewhere, building materials giant CRH was down 1.5 per cent, but was in line with its sectoral peers.

London

Big drops for the UK’s biggest listed house builders were offset as the big oil companies and utilities helped keep the Ftse 100 from a big drop.

Ahead of a potential interest rate hike later this week, new figures from Nationwide shocked the builders. Nationwide said that while house prices were still increasing, the number of approved mortgages dropped in June.

Taylor Wimpey — which is reporting interim results on Wednesday — felt the pain the most, dropping by 6 per cent. Barratt Developments, Berkeley Group and Persimmon all fell by more than 4 per cent, putting them among the worst performers.

They helped pull the Ftse to a 4.31 point drop, but it ended the day with a drop of less than 0.1 per cent, saved by the performance of BP, Shell, National Grid and Severn Trent among others.

BP was lifted by its morning results, which saw the business reporting the highest quarterly profit it has seen for 14 years. Baker Greggs saw its shares jump 2.6 per cent on the day after it reported a jump in sales.

The biggest risers in the Ftse 100 were Haleon, up 12.1p at 309.7p; BP, up 11.35p at 403.7p, National Grid, up 29p at 1,148p; Standard Chartered, up 13p at 581.2p; and Pearson, up 19.4p at 872p.

The biggest fallers of the day were Taylor Wimpey, down 7.95p at 120.05p, Barratt, down 28.1p at 477.5p, Berkeley, down 213p at 4,085p, Persimmon, down 79p at 1,825p, and Kingfisher, down 9.6p at 249.4p.

Europe

Risk-off sentiment also pulled European stocks lower, weighed by weak economic data and rising Sino-US tensions.

In Germany, the Dax index dropped 0.2 per cent, while France’s Cac 40 fell 0.4 per cent. The pan-European Stoxx 600 index lost 0.27 per cent and MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe shed 0.47 per cent.

Miners were among the biggest drags, falling 1.4 per cent amid a drop in commodities’ prices as traders rushed to safer assets.

Semiconductor stocks such as ASML Holding, ASM International and BE Semiconductor fell 1.2-2.2 per cent.

New York

US stocks struggled for gains and the dollar and gold rallied as simmering US-China tensions over Taiwan and ongoing concerns about a cooling global economy increased the appeal of safe-haven assets.

All three big US stock indexes were mixed, with economically sensitive transports leading decliners, and gold and the greenback outperforming most asset classes.

US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi’s impending arrival in Taipei, despite warnings from Beijing, prompted Chinese war planes to buzz the Taiwan Strait in protest.

“Markets are on edge,” said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Spartan Capital Securities in New York. “Pelosi’s visit is causing nervousness in the market. The dollar is rising, gold is rising. What we’re seeing is a flight to safety.”

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.56 per cent; the S&P 500 lost 0.13 per cent; and the Nasdaq Composite added 0.03 per cent.