AFP, New York :
Global share markets were mostly lower Wednesday one day after bombings claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group left 31 dead and 270 injured in Brussels.
A tumble in oil prices, driven in part by another surge in US commercial crude stockpiles, was as much to blame, pushing down the shares of oil majors and service companies, and dragging down Wall Street especially.
But the losses were generally modest as markets showed resilience against the latest terror shock, and London and Frankfurt even managed slight gains for the day.
“The impact of terror attacks on financial markets has become less and less dramatic in recent years, compared with the aftermath of the September 11 attacks,” said Bernard Aw, a market analyst at IG trading group.
China’s bourses, still riding support from looser rules on trading, registered gains, the Shanghai Composite adding 0.4 percent.
Tokyo and Hong Kong both fell 0.3 percent, France’s CAC 40 index lost 0.2 percent, and in the United States, the S&P 500 gave up 0.6 percent and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite 1.1 percent.
The 4.0 percent drop in US crude prices sank shares across the oil industry.
Statoil and ConocoPhillips both fell 5.0 percent, BP 2.4 percent, and Chevron 2.0 percent. In the service sector, Halliburton tumbled 2.6 percent and Baker Hughes 3.2 percent, while industry leader Schlumberger got away with just a 0.9 percent fall.
“We’re back to the correlation with oil prices,” said Art Hogan of Wunderlich Securities.
“When you think about the significant run up both in the stock market and the energy market over the last five weeks, it’s not unusual.”
Global share markets were mostly lower Wednesday one day after bombings claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group left 31 dead and 270 injured in Brussels.
A tumble in oil prices, driven in part by another surge in US commercial crude stockpiles, was as much to blame, pushing down the shares of oil majors and service companies, and dragging down Wall Street especially.
But the losses were generally modest as markets showed resilience against the latest terror shock, and London and Frankfurt even managed slight gains for the day.
“The impact of terror attacks on financial markets has become less and less dramatic in recent years, compared with the aftermath of the September 11 attacks,” said Bernard Aw, a market analyst at IG trading group.
China’s bourses, still riding support from looser rules on trading, registered gains, the Shanghai Composite adding 0.4 percent.
Tokyo and Hong Kong both fell 0.3 percent, France’s CAC 40 index lost 0.2 percent, and in the United States, the S&P 500 gave up 0.6 percent and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite 1.1 percent.
The 4.0 percent drop in US crude prices sank shares across the oil industry.
Statoil and ConocoPhillips both fell 5.0 percent, BP 2.4 percent, and Chevron 2.0 percent. In the service sector, Halliburton tumbled 2.6 percent and Baker Hughes 3.2 percent, while industry leader Schlumberger got away with just a 0.9 percent fall.
“We’re back to the correlation with oil prices,” said Art Hogan of Wunderlich Securities.
“When you think about the significant run up both in the stock market and the energy market over the last five weeks, it’s not unusual.”
