Closing summary
Stock markets extended their rally when they opened as fears of an energy supply crunch eased, with the key Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline from Russia to Europe due to resume operation on Thursday after maintenance work. But shares later turned negative as worries over energy supplies and recession resurfaced.
The FTSE 100 in London is trading some 18 points lower at 7,279, a 0.2% fall, while Germany’s Dax is down 0.8%, France’s CAC lost 0.5% and Italy’s FTSE MiB dropped 1.5%. The Italian prime minister Mario Draghi demanded a new pact from his coalition partners if they wanted him to stay in office, after tendering his resignation six days ago.
On Wall Street, shares were mixed: the Nasdaq opened 0.1% higher after a positive outlook from Netflix set the tone for other high-growth stocks, while the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones were flat.
The EU’s executive in Brussels has set out a plan to cut gas use, urging member states to cut consumption by 15% between 1 August and 31 March. It’s a voluntary cut, but could become mandatory in an emergency. The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said a complete shutdown of Russian gas flows was “likely”.
The EU has been scrambling to wean itself off Russian gas since the invasion of Ukraine, but is alarmed about a potential energy crisis this winter.
In response to EU support for Kyiv, the Kremlin has already stopped or reduced gas supplies to a dozen EU member states and is expected to send lower volumes of gas to Germany when the Nord Stream 1 pipeline reopens on Thursday.
In the UK, rising petrol and diesel prices for motorists and dearer food pushed Britain’s annual inflation rate to a fresh 40-year high of 9.4% last month.
Inflation also picked up in Canada, to 8.1% last month, the fastest annual increase in the cost of living in 39 years, caused by a near-55% spike in gasoline prices and a near-9% rise in food prices.
Here’s a round-up of today’s other main stories:
In Canada, inflation picked up to 8.1% last month, according to Statistics Canada, the fastest annual increase in the cost of living in 39 years.
Gasoline was the biggest single factor pushing inflation up, as pump prices were up 54.6% compared to the same month a year ago, while food prices jumped 8.8%.
