(Bloomberg) — European stocks slipped, following losses in the US and Asia as traders dial back optimism over possible Federal Reserve interest-rate cuts and trim positions before the long Christmas weekend.
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The autos and real estate sectors led declines as Europe’s Stoxx 600 index retreated 0.3%. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 both dropped 1.5% Wednesday, although futures contracts pointed to a recovery of some of those losses on Wall Street later. Treasuries edged lower, while most currencies traded in narrow ranges with volatility easing as the year-end holiday season approaches.
“The dovish tone by the Fed in December has been grossly over-exaggerated in terms of its impact on asset prices,” Mark Konyn, chief investment officer at AIA Co. in Hong Kong, said on Bloomberg Television. “The market will be little disappointed in terms of when those cuts start to take effect.”
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