ALBAWABA – Stocks worldwide fell on Tuesday as weak service sector data rekindled worries over China's sputtering post-pandemic economy, with the United States (US) dollar edging higher and the Euro and Australian dollar down.
European equity indexes opened in the red, according to Reuters.
The pan-European benchmark STOXX 600 dropped 0.8 percent and Germany's DAX, France's CAC 40 and Britain's FTSE 100 all nursed losses of between 0.6 and 1.2 percent.
Meanwhile, the MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was 1.1 percent lower, moving away from a three-week high it touched on Monday.
Chinese stocks suffer a sluggish economic recovery and concerns about debt-lade property sector - Shutterstock
China’s blue-chip CSI 300 Index fell 0.7 percent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index slid 2.1 percent, after those markets clocked their best day in over a month just one day ago.
Overall, the MSCI's gauge of stocks worldwide dropped 0.3 percent, Reuters reported.
The US dollar strengthened by 0.5 percent against its Group-of-10 peers, touching the highest level since March, as reported by Bloomberg, while US Treasury yields climbed following a US holiday on Monday.
Elsewhere, the Australian dollar shed 1.4 percent to $0.6374, its biggest daily drop in a month, after the country's central bank pinned rates at 4.10 percent. Data were consistent with inflation returning to the 2-3 percent target range in late 2025, the central bank said, according to Reuters.
Likewise, the euro dropped 0.4 percent to $1.0750, its lowest level since June, while the Japanese yen weakened 0.3 percent to 146.8555 per dollar.
