China shares plunge, Europe eyes crunch ECB meeting
(Reuters) – Chinese shares chalked up their biggest one-day slide in nearly seven years on Monday after regulators there took steps to rein in speculative lending, while investors everywhere braced for what is shaping up to be a critical week in the euro zone.
Expectations are high that the European Central Bank will unveil a bond-buying stimulus package at a crunch policy meeting on Thursday, while the anti-bailout party Syriza maintains a lead in the polls going into Greece’s general election on Sunday.
Investors focused more on the anticipated quantitative easing, or ‘QE’, from the ECB than the plunge in Chinese shares or jitters over the Greek vote – some euro zone government bond yields hit new lows and German stocks reached a new high.
A U.S. holiday also made for relatively thin conditions at the start of a week in which investors continue to digest the fallout of the Swiss National Bank’s shock decision last week to scrap the franc’s exchange rate cap and that will be marked by a barrage of major data from China and elsewhere.
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