European stocks fell on Tuesday and safe-haven assets, gold and government bonds rose in price after explosions at Brussels airport and Metro stations killed twenty-three people and left close to 35 others injured.
Travel sector stocks including airlines and hotels fell the most, with the Stoxx Europe 600 Travel & Leisure index down 2.2 percent Index, pulling the broader indices down from multi-week highs as reports on the scale of the bloodshed in the Belgian capital unfolded.
Futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index declined and the yield on 10-year German bunds dropped to a two-week low. Gold gained for the first time in four days.
In early European trade the FTS EuroFirst 300 index of leading shares was down 1 percent at 1,326 points while Germany's DAX was down 1.2 percent and Belgian stocks were down 0.8 percent ..
In Asia, Japanese equities rallied as trading resumed after a holiday, and Malaysia’s ringgit rose to levels last seen in August as crude traded above $41 a barrel. Asian bonds followed declines in U.S. Treasuries after Federal Reserve officials flagged the possibility of an interest-rate hike as soon as April.
Three Blasts in a Row
The first two explosions occurred at 8:00 in the morning in a main departure hall at Brussels Zaventem airport followed a half an hour later by another explosion at the Maelbeek metro stop in the Belgian capital close to the EU buildings.
The cause of the blasts is unknown but Belgian news agency Belga reported that prior to the attacks gunfire and cries in Arabic were heard. The explosions occurred four days after the arrest in Brussels of a suspected participant in November militant attacks in Paris that killed 130 people. Belgian police had been on alert for any reprisal action.