Slumping healthcare stocks pulled European markets lower yesterday after White House candidate Hillary Clinton demanded price cuts on a successful drug, while many investors awaited headlines from a big gathering of central bankers.
Healthcare stocks were a major weight on the FTSE 100, with Hikma, Shire and AstraZeneca falling between 1.4 per cent to 3.5 per cent. London’s FTSE closed 0.28 per cent lower.
The losses followed Democratic nominee Ms Clinton’s call for a lower price for Mylan NV’s allergy drug EpiPen, which has become four times more expensive in the past decade.
Mylan shares, however, were up 0.6 per cent, rebounding from steep Wednesday losses. An index of US-listed health shares was flat.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 9.93 points, or 0.05 per cent, to 18,471.55, the S&P 500 gained 1.13 points, or 0.05 per cent, to 2,176.57 and the Nasdaq Composite added 6.73 points, or 0.13 per cent, to 5,224.43.
In Europe, Frankfurt and Paris lost as much as 1.2 per cent in a region-wide slide but pared losses during later trading.
The euro rose 0.1 per cent against the dollar to $1.1276 . The euro rose despite a weak German IFO survey showing German business morale deteriorated sharply in August as Brexit shock weighed on sentiment.
“Business confidence in Germany has clearly worsened,” Ifo head Clemens Fuest said in a statement. “The German economy has fallen into a summer slump.”
Wall Street stayed flat to positive as investors waited for Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen to deliver the keynote speech at a global central banking conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming today, where Fed chiefs have traditionally signalled the direction of monetary policy.
Ms Yellen may struggle to convince financial markets she can steer a divided US central bank to raise interest rates at least once in 2016 after it started the year with four hikes on its radar. “There is basically just a bit of risk aversion ahead of Jackson Hole,” said CMC Markets senior analyst Michael Hewson. “I think expectations are way too high, though; I don’t think Ms Yellen sets as much importance on Jackson Hole as Ben Bernanke did.”
The US dollar, which is looking for any signal on whether rates will rise this year, tipped lower to $94.738 against a basket of major currencies and was flat against the yen at 100.49 yen.
Oil prices rebounded from a sell off in the previous session, rising nearly one per cent before stepping back slightly, on expectations that the dollar would weaken ahead of Ms Yellen’s speech. Crude futures also saw support from players buying on dips and looking for a bottom on speculation that next month’s informal meeting between Opec and other major oil producers could result in production curbs. Brent crude was last up 0.88 per cent, or 43 cents, at $49.49 per barrel. US crude was 0.56 per cent, or 26 cents, higher at $47.04.
In Asian equities, Japan’s Nikkei ended down 0.3 per cent following on from Wednesday’s modest losses on Wall Street.
US Treasury yields turned flat. Data showed new orders for US manufactured capital goods increased in July for the second straight month.