LONDON—Nagging recession and interest rate worries had Europe’s markets spluttering on Thursday, and the pound started to sag as Britain looked to put last month’s disastrous fiscal experiment behind it with an austere-looking budget.
Trading got off to a choppy start as optimism about Siemens’ earnings and that the European Central Bank might slow its rate hikes gave way to the selling that dogged Wall Street and Asia overnight.
That was driven by renewed Fed policymaker talk that rates could shoot up further. It meant the dollar was fractionally higher after a recent 7 percent slump, though Europe’s lower government debt yields suggested the bond markets were largely indifferent….