Shares of Europe’s largest banks dropped on Monday after extending credit to a major client that couldn’t meet its obligations.
A margin call triggered Friday of U.S. hedge fund Archegos Capital Management continued to ripple through markets. Nomura 8604, -16.33% shares skidded 16% in Tokyo after it said it had a claim of $2 billion against a U.S. client, while Credit Suisse CSGN, -12.71% fell 10% in Zurich after it said a U.S. hedge fund defaulted on margin calls. Deutsche Bank DBK, -5.27%, which according to the Wall Street Journal also unwound Archegos trades, fell 5%, and UBS UBSG, -4.00% shares fell 3%.
Archegos holdings that were sold to meet margin calls included positions in U.S. media companies ViacomCBS VIAC, -27.31% and Discovery Holdings C4XD, , and Chinese internet companies Baidu BIDU, +1.97%, Tencent Music TME, -1.28% and Vipshop
More broadly, the Stoxx Europe 600 SXXP, 0.00% was steady, while U.S. stock futures ES00, -0.54% declined.
“Last week’s back and forth battle between the recovery optimists and the lockdown fretters ended with the bulls regaining the upper hand, and many global equity markets begin this Easter-shortened week within striking distance of their recent, or in some cases all-time, highs,” said Ian Williams, strategist at U.K. broker Peel Hunt.
The Ever Given was refloated, an important step in unclogging the Suez Canal that now has a backlog of 450 ships.
Adidas ADS, 1.99% shares rose 3%, but still traded about 12% below its highs of March. Huawei removed Adidas and Nike NKE, +3.38% from its app store, the latest move by a Chinese company to penalize Western apparel makes that have boycotted Xinjiang cotton.
