European stock markets down for the fifth consecutive day

On European stock markets, share prices fell for the fifth consecutive day on Friday morning as investors remained cautious ahead of the employment report in the US, which could influence the decision of the leaders of the US central bank regarding interest rates.

The STOXX 600 index of leading European stocks was down 0.4 percent at 9:30 AM, on track for a weekly loss of about 3 percent.

This morning, the London FTSE index weakened by 0.54 percent to 8,195 points, while the Frankfurt DAX slid 0.81 percent to 18,425 points, and the Paris CAC fell 0.58 percent to 7,388 points.

Asian stock markets also saw declines. The MSCI Asia-Pacific index, excluding Japan, was down 0.3 percent at 9:30 AM, on track for a weekly loss of more than 2.5 percent.

This morning, the Nikkei index on the Tokyo Stock Exchange slid 0.7 percent, while share prices in Shanghai and South Korea fell between 0.8 and 1.2 percent. In Australia, however, they rose by 0.4 percent, while trading in Hong Kong was halted due to a hurricane.

Markets are cautious, as was the case yesterday on Wall Street, when the Dow Jones index fell by 0.54 percent and the S&P 500 by 0.3 percent. The Nasdaq index, on the other hand, rose by 0.25 percent.

Nervousness prevails in the market ahead of the release of employment data in the US economy for August, which could influence the decision of the leaders of the US central bank regarding interest rates.

Analysts in a Reuters poll estimate that the number of employed has increased by 165,000, up from 114,000 in July. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate could fall from 4.3 to 4.2 percent.

– The market is constantly oscillating between a desire for risk and a flight from risk as investors monitor macroeconomic indicators since the Fed has indicated that it will follow them to make decisions on interest rates. The market is tracking data to gain insight into how the economy is performing in relation to the soft landing scenario and what it all means for the Fed’s interest rate policy – said Wasif Latif, president of Sarmaya Partners.

The market expects the Fed to begin lowering interest rates in September, after years of maintaining a restrictive monetary policy.

The majority of analysts expect a rate cut of 0.25 percentage points, but some expect a sharper cut of 0.50 percentage points.