OVERNIGHT MARKETS ROUND UP – 16/12/13

European equity benchmarks are set to open the week marginally lower from Friday’s closing prices, with risk appetite softer in sympathy of tapering momentum. Investors are balancing improving fundamentals with a potential shift to the supply of money, something the market has dealt with two times before in only the last four years. 

The battle between the two is currently being won by improving macroeconomic conditions, as investors pick up much of any selling of risk with relative ease. And although sellers have pushed the market back from its highs, we haven’t seen the kind of volatility to warrant fears just yet. The Dow jones industrial Average sits at 15,720 this morning. 

Overnight in Asia the MSCI declined 0.6 per cent as Chinese manufacturing slowed. Gold is largely unchanged, trading around the $1,233 level. The dollar has weakened against sterling and the euro.