Overall risk mood stays on the defensive so far

This is mostly reflected in the mood in US futures to start the new week. S&P 500 futures are down 0.6% as techs shares are feeling heavy following a minor bounce on Friday. Despite the bit part recovery to wrap things up last week, it was still a poor showing for equities. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq both closed by over 2% lower on the week and were down for a fourth consecutive week running. Heavy is the crown.

Coming into today, Scott Bessent’s remarks over the weekend are something to be wary of. With the White House already calling this a period of “economic transition”, his comments below won’t help to soothe investor concerns for now.

“I can tell you that corrections are healthy. They’re normal. What’s not healthy is straight up, that you get these euphoric markets. That’s how you get a financial crisis. It would have been much healthier if someone had put the brakes on in ’06, ’07. We wouldn’t have had the problems in ’08.”

Bessent added that he’s not worried about the recent declines as “markets will do great” considering the policies that the Trump administration are working towards.

Looking to the session ahead, European indices might continue to diverge from the overall mood with the optimism still flowing ahead of Germany’s vote on the debt brake reform tomorrow. China’s press conference on consumption activity following the announcement here is also something to be wary about.

This article was written by Justin Low at www.forexlive.com.