U.S. and European exchanges continued to fall

Major U.S. and European stock indexes returned to negative territory on Tuesday. The S&P500 lost 1.52%, Dow Jones - 1.69%, NASDAQ - 1.25%. The German DAX lost 0.6%, the British FTSE 100 lost 0.13% and the French CAC 40 lost 0.46%.

Tuesday's economic statistics were sparse and not too positive. The Redbook retail sales index fell 2.3 percentage points to 3%. Germany's manufacturing orders in January fell markedly from the previous month, down 1.0% versus December's 3.4%.

Yesterday also saw a speech from Fed Chairman Jerome Powell, who reiterated that he would continue to raise rates in order to lower inflation and the fight against the latter might not be easy. In fact, he has been repeating these words since last fall, which investors did not pay much attention to, expecting the rate hike to slow down and then move to a rate cut. But this time, according to Suzanne Streeter, senior analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown (cited by France-Presse), Powell's statement has really disappointed them.