Stock market panic helps push interest rates down

Stock markets have fallen in recent sessions on investor concerns about a U.S. recession and the Japanese central bank’s decision, but analysts say the North American economy could still recover without spillovers in Europe. On the other hand, expectations of interest rate cuts could explain the Euribor’s decline.

The Euribor rate fell to new lows in more than a year, three, six and 12 months on Tuesday. The changes left the three-month rate, which fell to 3.523%, above the six-month rate (3.397%) and the 12-month rate (3.138%).

The decline is partly due to analysts’ expectations that central banks will cut interest rates.

The start of the week was marked by a fall in Japan’s Nikkei, which hit 12.4%, its worst day since 1987, while the New York Stock Exchange also closed sharply lower and the Dow Jones and S&P500 hit their lowest in two years. However, on Tuesday we started to see some signs of improvement, especially the Nikkei, which closed up 10.23%. In Europe, Germany’s Dax and France’s Cac closed in the green, while the Psi closed in the red (0.02%), “even though investor concerns about the risk of a global recession have intensified in recent weeks,” according to XTB.

According to the brokerage, “North American services sector labor data released on Tuesday ultimately ruled out the recession idea after the data came in slightly above expectations.”