A stocks rally triggered by Hillary Clinton’s upbeat performance in the first US presidential debate over Republican rival Donald Trump slid away yesterday on a dim outlook for an oil deal.
In Asia, indices closed with solid gains as a confident Clinton bested her rival in the 90-minute showdown, but in Europe the gains were short-lived and Wall Street opened on the downside.
European equities had opened moderately higher in a small nod to establishment candidate Hillary Clinton winning the US presidential debate, said Jasper Lawler, analyst at CMC markets.
But fears about a renewed banking crisis in Europe weighed on financial stocks, and commodity stocks fell after prospects of an agreement by producers to tackle a lingering supply glut evaporated.
Comments by Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh that his country is not ready to agree to an output freeze at today’s meeting of Opec nations and Russia sent oil prices down by over 3%.
Shares in US oil services company Halliburton dropped 2.1% in New York.
In London, shares in BP shed 1.1% and Shell’s A-share tumbled 2.1%.
The London stock market ended the day 0.2% lower, Frankfurt was down 0.3% at 10,361.48 and Paris slid 0.2%.
Wall Street quickly bounced higher after US consumer confidence rose in September to its highest level since the Great Recession.
The Conference Board’s confidence index rose to 104.1, up from 101.8 in August. The reading handily surpassed a consensus forecast among analysts, which had called for a reading of 98.
Approaching midday, the Dow was up 0.5%, while the broader S&P 500 index added 0.2% and the tech-rich Nasdaq was 0.6% higher.
On foreign exchange markets emerging-market currencies surged as traders moved back into riskier assets after Clinton projected steady experience during the first presidential debate.
Meanwhile Trump played the populist bruiser, pitching to frustrated blue-collar voters fed up with politicians as just six weeks remain until election day and polls show a virtual dead heat.
“The election in November is one of the biggest risk events facing the markets this year and the way markets responded to the first debate makes it clear which outcome is more favourable,” said analyst Craig Erlam at traders Oanda.
“Clinton appeared to edge the first debate which has provided a lift for investors, albeit only a slight one as the polls remain extremely close and the campaign has a long way to go.”
The Mexican peso rebounded off a record low, rocketing over 2% to as strong as 19.4367 against the dollar.
The unit had slumped before the debate as the prospect of a Trump presidency fanned concerns over the neighbours’ political and economic ties.
He added: “The Mexican peso is particularly sensitive to the election and will likely remain very volatile over the next month or so.”
Trump has vowed to cut off billions of dollars in remittances sent by migrants to Mexico to make their country pay for a massive wall along the border.