21.10. Stocks drop amid returning Evergrande concerns

News for today, October 21st:

In early European trading on Thursday, the dollar consolidated at lower levels after a resurgence of fears over a real estate crisis in China that interrupted high-yielding currencies.

Asian stocks tumbled on Thursday as the optimistic sentiment that drove the Dow Jones and Bitcoin to record highs the day before dwindled to new concerns about a weakening Chinese property sector amid a possible default of China Evergrande in the coming days. European stocks also experienced a decrease on Thursday amid gloomy sentiment on renewed concerns over China's real estate sector and mixed quarterly results.

China Evergrande shares resumed trading after a nearly three-week hiatus as the developer was forced to abandon a proposed asset sale that would help meet its short-term obligations. Thus, the company is likely to face a formal default when the grace period for one of its dollar bonds expires on Friday.

Later Thursday, the US is to publish weekly jobless claims data. Analysts expect initial jobless claims to rise to 300,000, up from a post-pandemic low of 293,000 in the previous week. The price of Brent crude is $ 84,97 per barrel, WTI — $ 82,76. EUR/USD is at 1.1636, GBP/USD —1.3803, gold is at $ 1,784.41 per ounce.­­­­