European shares drifted lower this morning, following the path traced by Asian markets where declines have been mostly driven by Hong-Kong and China while Tokyo was shut for a holiday. There is still a lot of uncertainty in the market despite “constructive” talks between the US and the Ministry of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China as any substantial progress before the official October meeting is extremely unlikely.
Another bearish driver for global stocks comes from Saudi Arabia, where some Aramco board members said it may take months, rather than weeks, to restore the company’s oil output after the drone attack. Technical experts told Saudi officials that it could take up to 8-months for production to return to pre-attack levels, which could support the current rally on crude and mechanically put further pressure on stocks.
Photo by Sandro Cenni.
In Europe, UK PM Boris Johnson doesn’t think a breakthrough on Brexit will happen during his meeting with Belgian PM Charles Michel in New York today, but he said he was pleased with the optimistic tone talks have taken with EU officials, after they said there was space for negotiations on the backstop.
