European stocks slumped, the euro fell and natural gas skyrocketed after Russia said it was cutting off gas supplies through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline indefinitely.
The announcement, which supplier Gazprom blamed on technical issues after a three-day maintenance period, was interpreted as a political move as Western countries moved to implement a price cap on Russian oil, the latest sanction after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The Stoxx Europe 600
SXXP,
dropped 1.2%, with automakers and chemicals companies among the hardest hit.
Of the major regional indexes, the German DAX
DAX,
fell 2.7% and the French CAC 40
PX1,
lost 1.9%, while the oil producer heavy U.K. FTSE 100
UKX,
weakened by 0.7%.
Dutch TTF gas futures rocketed 26%. The euro
EURUSD,
fell 0.4% to $0.9916, having briefly fallen below 99 cents for the first time in 20 years.
The moves come with Wall Street closed for the Labor Day holiday. U.S. stock futures wavered , with the lead S&P 500
ES00,
contract down less than a tenth of a percentage point. That came after a rough close on Friday, when the Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA,
fell 338 points and the S&P 500
SPX,
declined 1.1%.
