European Stocks Drift Lower, Dollar Firms as Risk Appetite Fades

Frankfurt (Feb 17)  European stocks drifted lower Friday as investors trimmed risky positions following a pullback from recent market highs and an erratic press conference from President Donald Trump.

The Stoxx Europe 600 index, the region's broadest measure of share price performance, fell 0.08% to 369.81 points Friday but still looks set to book a weekly gain of around 0.5% amid a string of solid corporate earnings and solid underlying economic growth.

Britain's FTSE 100 fell by around 0.21% in the opening hour of trading, with energy and financial stocks leading the declines. Germany's DAX index was little changed from Thursday's close by 09:00 GMT, powered by a 2.3% advance for Allianz SE (AZSEY)  , which rose to the highest in more than a year after Europe's largest insurance company said it would launch its first-ever share buyback and boost its annual dividend after better-than-expected full year earnings.

Overnight in Asia, markets pulled back from multi-month highs Friday, with the region-wide MSCI Asia ex-Japan index falling 0.21% and traders citing a cautious reaction to Thursday's extraordinary press conference in which Trump traded barbs with the media over his alleged relationship with Russia and his plans to control immigration from Muslim-majority countries.

The lack of detail in terms of economic plans, and most specifically tax reform, assisted in delivering a second day of declines for the U.S. dollar on foreign exchange markets, with the greenback falling from a one-month high of 101.76 Wednesday to a one week low of 100.41 against a basket of six global currencies. The dollar index rebounded modestly to 100.59 by 09:00 GMT.

Source: TheStreet