World markets fell and the price of oil rose again on Monday amid fresh concerns for hopes of peace in the Middle East.
Dealing a new blow to peace prospects, US president Donald Trump cancelled a visit by two US envoys to Pakistan, where talks with Iranian counterparts were expected to take place.
Stocks have climbed to fresh highs in recent days on earnings optimism even as back-and-forth headlines on the US-Iran war swayed sentiment.
Brent oil traded at $108.92 (€92.85) a barrel on Monday afternoon, higher compared with $105.78 at the time of the equities close in London on Friday.
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Dublin
Euronext Dublin finished the day down 0.4 per cent on what was a muted day for the market ahead of a slew of corporate results later in the week.
The big loser on the day was budget airline Ryanair, which continued its recent downward turn to finish 1.4 per cent lower. “The airline sector is pretty volatile at the moment,” a trader said. “A number of other names are down as well.”
Among the financial names, Bank of Ireland and AIB finished down 1 per cent and up 0.3 per cent respectively, while PTSB was up 0.3 per cent at close of business.
Cavan-based insulation specialist Kingspan sank 0.4 per cent, while home builders Glenveagh Properties and Cairn Homes went down 0.2 per cent and up 0.5 per cent respectively.
“The volumes are still pretty thin,” the trader said. “We’ve got results and updates coming through from a number of names this week including AIB, Bank of Ireland, and Kingspan, so investors will be watching them and may be sitting on their hands for now.”
[ Mediators try to bridge US-Iran disagreements after Trump calls off envoy tripOpens in new window ]
London
The FTSE 100 closed down 0.6 per cent weighed by falls in Marks & Spencer, J Sainsbury and Shell, as the stalemate in the Middle East dragged on. The FTSE 250 ended flat, and the Aim All-Share fell 0.2 per cent.
Marks & Spencer fell 4.8 per cent after Worldpanel data for the 12 weeks to March 29 showed a material slowdown in the UK clothing market to minus 3.8 per cent year-on-year versus minus 1 per cent in the 12 weeks to March 1st.
Food retailer J Sainsbury declined 3.4 per cent, hit by downgrades by Goldman Sachs and Citi.
Goldman Sachs double-downgraded London-based Sainsbury to “sell” from “buy”, while analysts at Citigroup moved to “neutral” from “buy”.
Shell fell 1.7 per cent after it announced the 16.4 billion US dollar cash-and-shares acquisition of Canadian energy company ARC Resources.
Europe
Euro zone short-dated government bond yields were little changed after wavering earlier on Monday, as no major weekend developments in the US-Israeli war with Iran left traders to focus on week’s European Central Bank meeting.
Germany’s two-year yield traded flat on the day at 2.56 per cent.
In European equities, the Cac 40 in Paris ended down 0.2 per cent, as did the Dax 40 in Frankfurt.
MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe rose 0.66 points, or 0.06 per cent while the pan-European Stoxx 600 index fell 0.38 per cent.
New York
Wall Street’s main indexes fell as stalled US-Iran peace talks kept markets on edge and investors awaited a torrent of earnings later this week to guide sentiment.
Seven of the eleven main S&P sectors were in the red, with the S&P 500 consumer discretionary led losses with a 0.7 per cent drop.
Microsoft dipped 0.4 per cent after OpenAI said on Monday that the cloud computing provider will not have exclusive access to its artificial intelligence models and products.
Domino’s Pizza dropped 9.6 per cent after the pizza chain missed first-quarter sales estimates.
Nvidia gained 1.2 per cent after jumping 4.3 per cent in the previous session. The company has reclaimed a market valuation above $5 trillion. (Additional reporting: Agencies)
[ Could the US go downhill for good following Trump’s war on Iran?Opens in new window ]
