Stock markets mostly fell on Tuesday as traders reacted to mixed earnings, while Hong Kong steadied after the previous session’s rout triggered by China President Xi Jinping tightening his grip on power.
The pound climbed as markets welcomed the appointment of former finance chief Rishi Sunak as Britain’s prime minister.
Sunak on Tuesday promised to bring economic stability after the turmoil that forced predecessor Liz Truss out of Downing Street.
“Right now our country is facing a profound economic crisis,” he told the nation in a televised address.
He vowed to place “economic stability and confidence at the heart of this government's agenda”.
“This will mean difficult decisions to come,” Sunak added.
In commodities trading meanwhile, oil and European gas prices slid further on weaker demand expectations.
Some market support came from reports suggesting the Federal Reserve could slow its pace of interest rate hikes.
The central bank's policy of ramping up US borrowing costs to fight decades-high inflation has hammered global markets this year as investors worry that they will send the economy into recession.
“Investors are getting more confident that inflation will soften as the consumer rethinks massive purchases,” said Edward Moya, analyst at Oanda trading group. “Fed rate hike expectations will remain volatile, but expectations are growing that a weaker economy will let the Fed pause their tightening after the February policy meeting.”
Investors are getting more confident that inflation will soften as the consumer rethinks massive purchases- Edward Moya, analyst at Oanda trading group
It comes as investors pore over earnings updates from some of the world’s biggest companies.
Shares in HSBC slumped 7.5 per cent after the banking giant warned on bad loans owing to global economic headwinds.
Elsewhere, General Motors confirmed its full-year financial forecast despite a “challenging environment”, saying that consumer demand remained strong.
The big US carmaker scored third-quarter profits of $3.3 billion on soaring revenues.
Earlier on Tuesday, US tech giant Meta resolved a major WhatsApp outage that prevented its popular service from connecting or sending messages.