FRANCE: European stocks dropped Wednesday, with investors juggling concerns over China and Greece.
The Stoxx Europe 600 SXXP, -0.86% fell 1.1% to 384.06. No sectors traded higher, and the basic resources group SXPP, -1.86% was the worst performing.
European stocks opened lower, while U.S. stock futures pulled backed, “plagued by the Chinese stock market meltdown,” said Naeem Aslam, chief market analyst at AvaTrade, in a note. The Shanghai Composite SHCOMP, +1.23% on Wednesday dropped as much as 5% intraday before turning higher to close in positive territory.
Miners on the Stoxx 600 were in the red, with Anglo American PLC AAL, -2.74% down 2.8%, Swedish mining and smelting company Boliden AB BOL, -2.01% off 2% and Rio Tinto PLC RIO, -1.43% RIO, -1.23% RIO, +0.12% down 1.9%.
“The selloff in commodities has been the main agenda on the trader’s dashboard for some time,” said Aslam. Copper “still cannot find its solid foundation as the selloff continues in the Chinese stock market. Unless we see some sign of stabilization, it is extremely difficult to knit a scenario under which you could see…commodity prices rising again.”
The losses in mining shares weighed on the U.K.’s FTSE 100 UKX, -0.90% helping to pull it down 1.1% to 6,452.07.
Greece: Also on the radar Wednesday is the German parliament, which will vote on the €86 billion ($95 billion) Greek rescue deal approved by eurozone finance ministers last week. But German Chancellor Angela Merkel faces discord in her own party, as a third of the total in Merkel’s bloc in the lower house could possibly oppose the bailout, according to the BBC. Read: Tsipras and Merkel face revolt over Greek bailout.
