December to turn rocky for world shares

CAUTIOUS MOOD SPREADS AS YEAR-END BEGINS AMID SLOWING DEMAND, NEW GEOPOLITICAL RISKS

- BY JUSTIN VARGHESE

Global shares slipped yesterday, setting a cautious tone for December as investors grappled with interest-rate uncertainty, soft economic data and renewed volatility across stocks, bonds and cryptocurrencies. Major indices in the US, Europe and Asia were in the red, signalling a potentially turbulent final month of the year.

In the US, key benchmarks opened lower by roughly 0.5 per cent to 0.6 per cent, reflecting nerves after November’s strong rally. Tech giants continued to wobble, with Tesla, Meta and Nvidia all falling, adding to recent weakness in the high-growth names that drove much of this year’s gains.

A weekend drop in Bitcoin below $86,000 pulled crypto-linked shares lower as well. “The market is still hesitating a bit ahead of the upcoming macro data, and before the Christmas rally people typically expect,” said Andrea Tueni, head of sales trading at Saxo Banque France. “The drop in Bitcoin is weighing on sentiment and so are the comments from the BOJ.”