European markets return to activity in nervousness. Geopolitical risks and commercial tensions are still upward, Washington government negotiations with their partners to reach tariff agreements do not curdle. And for greater restlessness, the administration of Donald Trump attacks against the Federal Reserve, and specifically against its president, Jerome Powell, undermining confidence in the institution and trying to force a reduction of interest rates and conditioning their future decisions regarding monetary policy. A credibility crisis is a breeding ground for investors to flee from US assets: the dollar is still in a minimum of three years against the euro and the US debt sales are maintained in the long term. The drag effect. Gold renews historical maximums, touching the $ 3,500 per ounce, while other assets that are considered safe, such as Japanese and the Swiss Franco, maintain their role as a refuge to protect themselves from the ideas and coming of the markets.
European stock markets can contain this pessimism and after opening with cuts, the falls are moderated. Specifically, the quote in tables and moves around 12,840 points. Within the selective, the most upward values are colonial, Iberdrola and Santander, which rise more than 1%. On the other side, the biggest decrease is for Aena, which loses 4.5%. For its part, CaixaBank and Unicaja, follow, with respective falls of 2.8% and 2.6%.
Inverters of uncertainty situations are not friends like the one in recent weeks, since Trump started his tariff barrage, at the beginning of April. While the president, forced by the markets, granted a truce to initiate conversations with other countries, the operators do not see that the road is easy: in doubt, better to keep the clothes. European stock markets have been operating since Thursday, while the main US indices, S&P 500, Dow Jones and Nasdaq, closed yesterday with falls of more than 2%. Despite this rarefied environment, in Europe operators keep calm. Meanwhile, the dollar, which fell early in front of the euro to its lowest level from 2022, moderates these descents and quotes in boards.
Trump exacerbated yesterday the agitation of US operators with new criticism of the president of the Fed, who add to the threats he already launched last week. In a publication in his social Truth network, the president described Powell yesterday and demanded that he lower the interest rates “already” or risk an economic deceleration. Trump’s attack occurs after the head of the Central Bank affirmed last week that the institution can be patient when determining monetary policy measures, and that interest rates should not be lowered until it is clearer that tariff plans will not envive inflation.
The main focus of nervousness is maintained in the commercial sphere and in the low advance of negotiations to reach tariff agreements. “Every day that no agreements are reached to provide some relief, new anxiety is generated,” says Reuters Eric Kuby, investment director of the North Star Investment Management manager. This analyst also quotes the “terrible stagnation” between Trump and Powell, which encourages the “concern that some kind of measure will be taken to replace Powell, which would generate true panic in the dollar.”
For their part, from Macroyield they point out that “in recent days, according to the White House, it has advanced in commercial negotiations with the EU, Japan and India, but the investment feeling remains very negative. The greed/fear index calculated by the CNN from different technical indicators, is maintained in an extreme fear zone, although this fear has been moderated since the beginning of April”.
In this environment, some assets considered safer by investors – a paper that the dollar previously occupied but has lost – remains up. Among these shelter assets, gold remains in historical maximum: the ounce of the precious metal rises on Tuesday by 2% and is placed at $ 3,490.
Also the Swiss Franco and the Yen are still strong against the dollar. The dollar is close to the minimum in a decade against the Swiss currency and at its lowest level in seven months against the Japanese. “The longer the speculation about the independence of American monetary policy is prolonged, the greater the risk of falling from the dollar,” says Joseph Capurso, director of International and Sustainable Economy of Commonwealth Bank of Australia. “Another sales wave may be necessary in the US government bond market or in the US stock market to encourage President Trump to refrain from such comments,” he adds.
The US debt receives more pressure, and sales are primed, especially the 10 -year bonus. The prices of these fixed income titles fall and profitability – that is, the return obtained by the investor if the bonus remains until the expiration and that moves the price in reverse – rises to 4,432%. It also increases the performance of the shortest deadlines, and the 2 -year bonus quotes at 3,779%.
In Asia, the indices also record moderate or slight increases. Tokyo’s Nikkei drops 0.14% at the close and Hang Kong Hang, which did not operate yesterday, rises 0.2%. The Shanghai compound index gains 0.25%. In a new episode, commercial tensions, which the agreement that reaches does not harm Beijing, intensifying its confrontation speech in the commercial war between the two greatest economies in the world.
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