European Stocks Set to Rise, Bucking Asian Losses: Markets Wrap

(Bloomberg) — European shares looked poised for gains at open, resuming Friday’s positive tone on Wall Street and shrugging off a weak Asian session after China’s debt swap program disappointed some investors.

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The Euro Stoxx 50 futures rose 0.5%, with their US peers also edging up.

A gauge of Asian equities dropped as much as 1.3%, led by heavyweights including Tencent Holdings and Meituan. An index of Chinese companies listed in Hong Kong shed 1.7%. China’s CSI 300 benchmark fell as much as 1.4%, before erasing those losses to close with modest gains.

There were lingering concerns about the outlook of the world’s No. 2 economy, after Beijing unveiled a 10 trillion yuan ($1.4 trillion) program to defuse local governments’ debt risk but stopped short of unleashing new fiscal stimulus. In addition to anemic inflation, sentiment toward China is also faltering as foreign direct investment continues to slump.

Investors had hoped for more potent stimulus measures that would directly boost demand from a key Chinese legislature meeting last week, especially after Donald Trump’s presidential victory injected fresh uncertainty over tariffs. To many economists, Beijing’s stance signals an intention to preserve room to better respond to a potential trade war when Trump takes office next year.

“There will be a lot more volatility” for Chinese equities, Ecaterina Bigos, chief investment officer for Asia excluding Japan at AXA Investment Managers, told Bloomberg Television. While policy announcements on matters such as real estate have helped sentiment, “the fundamental picture has not changed yet. We haven’t seen that in earnings yet.”

UBS lowered its 2025 growth forecast for China following Trump’s election, expecting an “around 4%” expansion for 2025, and a “considerably lower” pace in 2026.

Oil turned flat after falling earlier on a soft outlook for top importer China, while iron ore declined toward $100 a ton.

Elsewhere, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. slipped after a Reuters’ report saying the US told the firm to halt shipments of some advanced chips often used in AI applications to Chinese customers.

Bitcoin surged past $81,000 for the first time, driven by the incoming president’s support for digital assets and the election of pro-crypto lawmakers. A bevy of smaller cryptocurrencies have also rallied.

The dollar and the euro were broadly steady. The yen slipped, after Bank of Japan board members discussed the need for caution on raising its benchmark rate and offered no clear hint of a move next month, a summary of opinions from its October policy meeting showed.

Meanwhile, Japan’s Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba won the most support in Monday’s first round of voting to stay in the job despite a national election setback, as he prepares for an expected meeting with US President-elect Donald Trump later this month.

Back in the US, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis President Neel Kashkari indicated at the weekend the central bank could ease rates less than previously expected amid a strong US economy. Kashkari emphasized, however, that it’s too early to determine the impact of Trump’s policies.

This week, traders will be parsing data from Australian jobs to Chinese retail sales and industrial production, inflation from the US and the Eurozone as well as growth readings in the UK and Japan. A swath of Federal Reserve officials are scheduled to speak which may help indicate the central bank’s thinking following the election result.

Key events this week:

Japan current account, Monday
Denmark CPI, Monday
Norway CPI, Monday
United Nations climate change conference, COP29 begins, Monday
Germany CPI, Tuesday
UK jobless claims, unemployment, Tuesday
Fed speakers including Christopher Waller, Tuesday
Japan PPI, Wednesday
Eurozone industrial production, Wednesday
US CPI, Wednesday
Australia unemployment, Thursday
Eurozone GDP, Thursday
US PPI, jobless claims, Thursday
Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Michele Bullock speaks, Thursday
Fed Chair Jerome Powell speaks, Thursday
ECB President Christine Lagarde speaks, Thursday
BOE Governor Andrew Bailey speaks, Thursday
Japan GDP, industrial production, Friday
China retail sales, industrial production, fixed-asset investment, Friday
UK GDP, industrial production, trade balance, Friday
US retail sales, Friday
Alibaba earnings, Friday

Some of the major moves in markets:

Stocks

S&P 500 futures rose 0.2% as of 3:51 p.m. Tokyo time
S&P/ASX 200 futures were little changed
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 1.5%
The Shanghai Composite rose 0.4%
Euro Stoxx 50 futures rose 0.5%

Currencies

The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was little changed
The euro was little changed at $1.0717
The Japanese yen fell 0.6% to 153.55 per dollar
The offshore yuan was little changed at 7.1985 per dollar

Cryptocurrencies

Bitcoin rose 1.3% to $80,956.63
Ether fell 1% to $3,139.01

Bonds

Commodities

West Texas Intermediate crude was little changed
Spot gold fell 0.5% to $2,672.59 an ounce

This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.

–With assistance from John Cheng.

(An earlier version of this article corrected the currency conversion in the second paragraph.)