Other factors that dampen the mood include U.S. President Joe Biden still facing obstacles to pass his large stimulus bill, rising Covid-19 cases and lower-than-expected US GDP growth in the third quarter.

Meanwhile, data from the British Retail Consortium shows that Q3 vacancy rates in the U.K. remained steady sequentially, and was slightly higher when compared with the year-ago quarter.

NatWest is the biggest faller today, despite posting better-than-expected profits. Profits attributable to shareholders were close to half the second quarter's level.

Debates over inflation and the threat of stagflation are also on investors’ minds: The European Central Bank met yesterday and decided to maintain all its measures to support the economy, despite the sharp rise in inflation in the euro zone, postponing the decision on a gradual normalization of monetary policy to December. Yesterday, the Bank of Japan also delivered a dovish statement.

 

Things to read:

Biden announces framework for $1.75tn spending deal (Financial Times)

The Summer of Stagflation (WSJ)

Lagarde’s Market Pushback Slammed by Aggressive Rate-Hike Bets (Bloomberg)