European stock markets continue facing pressures on the U.S. government shutdown and China’s economic outlook related wariness.
The current government shutdown is the longest in the U.S. history. The U.S. federal government has been in a partial shutdown since December 22, 2018 with a slew of key government agencies such as Department of State, Department of Justice and Department of Transportation affected due to the differences between the country’s President Donald Trump and Democrats over funding for the U.S.-Mexico border wall. With great many of the country’s main agencies’ employees not working, the U.S. economy is being hurt really badly, which reverberates onto the global economy overall.
What’s more is that Europe’s investors fear that China’s economy might face challenges, too, with the concerns fuelled by the country’s economic statistics being rather weak lately. The two most downbeat indicators here are the country’s imports and exports that are sliding down on a persisting U.S.-China trade war. And though both countries have made some steps in order to put an end to the situation that is toxic to all parties concerned, there’s still a long way to go until the dispute is finally resolved.
For Europe itself, Brexit remains a burning issue with no deal reached yet, while Britain is slated to leave the EU on March 29 either with or without a deal.