- Oil falls after OPEC lifted its production levels in July to its highest level in 2017
- The euro falls against the dollar to $1.17
The Ibex 35 closed 1.38% lower to 10,450 points, its biggest fall since 29 June. The Spanish index prolonged its losses from Wednesday, when it fell 1.29% to 10,596 points, after four positive sessions in a row took it to above 10,700 points.
- 11.473,900
- 0,33%
Mediaset was the only stock to finish up on Thursday, while Siemens Gamesa picked up the wooden spoon after falling 2.94%, followed by Bankia, Banco Santander and Melia Hotels, all below 2%. Other stocks which had a bad day on Thursday were BBVA (-1.97%), Bankinter (-1.94%) and Sabadell (-1.90%).
The focus for investors on Thursday continued to be the escalating tensions between the White House and North Korea. Declarations from Washington and Pyongyang kept European markets lower, with the FTSE 100 particularly affected with a drop of 1.51%.
“The recent good behaviour from stock exchanges, especially in North America, made them very susceptible to profit-taking,” pointed out the analysts at Link Securities. Although Wall Street has seen a limited impact thus far, markets in New York are lower on Thursday. (Nasdaq: -1.12%, S&P 500: -0.85% and Dow Jones: -0.49%)
Away from politics, European investors remain focused on what’s happening in the US through the Federal Reserve, which is attempting to normalise its balance, something which “would be reasonable to begin doing in September”, Chicago Fed President Charles Evans said on Thursday. The euro is quoting light losses against the dollar (-0-04%).
In commodities, oil was falling: West Texas by 0.8% to $49.2 while Brent was down 0.5% to $52.5 after the OPEC meeting revealed a rise in production to its highest level in 2017. In debt markets, Spanish 10-year bond yields are at 1.41%