Asian And European Equities Mostly Lower, Shanghai Index Loses 2% Amid Monetary Easing Chatter

Asian stocks were mostly lower during Wednesday's trading session, led by a more than 2 percent decline in China's Shanghai index. According to China Daily, the selloff in Chinese equities were attributed to market speculations that monetary easing will be less likely following recent data points that show a stabilization of the economy. The Shanghai index was lower by more than 4 percent before slightly rebounding and closing below the 3,000 level. Taiwan's TSEC index lost 1.38 percent while Hong Kong's Hang Seng index lost 0.93 percent. On the other hand, Australia's ASX index gained 0.50 percent, Japan's Nikkei index gained 0.19 percent and India's Mumbai Sensex index gained 0.11 percent. European equities were also trading nearly flat to slightly lower with more than 4 hours of trading remaining. The broad Euro Stoxx 50 index was higher by 0.37 percent and Germany's DAX index was higher by 0.10 percent. The UK's FTSE index was lower by 0.29 percent, followed by a 0.19 percent decline in France's CAC index. The price of crude oil fell nearly 2 percent and was trading at $41.73 a barrel. Gold futures for April delivery were lower by 0.42 percent as well. Commodity-linked currencies, such as the Australian and Canadian dollar pulled back from recent multi-month highs while the Euro held steady at $1.137 ahead of Thursday's European Central Bank meeting.