2026-02-02 12:25:00
The start of the day was a rather poor one for major indices in Europe. That as risk sentiment was on the rocks after some heavy selling in Asian equities as well. The turbulent environment across broader markets didn’t help with Nvidia pulling investment on OpenAI, volatile selling in precious metals, cryptocurrencies coming under pressure, and purported ambivalence towards Trump’s Fed chair pick in Kevin Warsh.
When you tie all those factors in, it did keep the market mood more nervous and unsettling. That especially with gold and silver facing another rout at the tail end of Asia trading. But amid a modest bounce in precious metals, we are seeing a bit more of a calmer mood in the risk side of things as well.
European equities were down around 0.5% to 0.8% in the opening hour but have now recovered across the board:
- Eurostoxx +0.3%
- Germany DAX +0.8%
- France CAC 40 +0.5%
- UK FTSE +0.8%
- Spain IBEX +0.8%
- Italy FTSE MIB +0.7%
Meanwhile, US futures have also trimmed declines considerably with the snapshot as per the following:
- Dow futures -0.1%
- S&P 500 futures -0.4%
- Nasdaq futures -0.7%
For some context, S&P 500 futures were down around 1.1% at the start of the session with tech shares leading declines as Nasdaq futures were down by as much as 1.5% at one point. And now, things are looking less bleak at the very least.
As highlighted above, there are still pressure points for risk sentiment on the day. So, that is not going to make it easy for investors to feel comfortable to turn the switch back on to get into another rallying mood.
But at least at this stage, there is some hopeful optimism although a lot of that will be tied to the volatility bouts we’re seeing with the likes of gold and silver still. So, be sure to keep a close watch on that if anything else.
This article was written by Justin Low at investinglive.com.
