The US nonfarm jobs report came and went without much fanfare on Friday, the markets unwavering in their focus on Donald Trump’s latest trade war offensive.
Entering a bloodied battlefield, the index itself already having lost a limb last night, the Dow Jones dove 200 points after the bell rang on Wall Street, dragged below 26400 for the first time since mid-June. For context, it opened the week pushing 27250, only to be undone by a not-dovish-enough rate cut from the Fed and Trump’s shock-but-not-shocking tariff threat towards China.
The Eurozone went a bit mad following the announcement of Trump’s September 1st deadline. Both the DAX and CAC plunged more than 3%, a huge decline that left the German index under 11900 – just over a week ago it was at 12600 – and its French sibling the wrong side of 5400.
Hampered by its massive chunk of miners, alongside the slippery weight of BP (LON:BP) and Shell (LON:RDSa), the FTSE shed 160 points. The UK index has suffered quite the comedown this week. Sterling’s slide and the M&A-boosted performances of Just Eat (LON:JE) and LSE had pushed it above 7700, a level last seen around a year ago; now it is struggling to hold above a 2-month low of 7400.
It sums up the pound’s transition from July to August that the best thing that can be said about Friday is that its losses were capped at around 0.3%. A pathetic construction PMI of 45.3 provided evidence of why the currency is so worried about a no-deal Brexit; however, it was perhaps saved from another dive by the Lib Dems’ success in the Brecon and Radnorshire by-election. Nevertheless, cable is lurking near those recent 2 and a half year-lows, while against the euro it is barely above €1.09.
The US nonfarm jobs report came and went without much fanfare on Friday, the markets unwavering in their focus on Donald Trump’s latest trade war offensive.
Entering a bloodied battlefield, the index itself already having lost a limb last night, the Dow Jones dove 200 points after the bell rang on Wall Street, dragged below 26400 for the first time since mid-June. For context, it opened the week pushing 27250, only to be undone by a not-dovish-enough rate cut from the Fed and Trump’s shock-but-not-shocking tariff threat towards China.
The Eurozone went a bit mad following the announcement of Trump’s September 1stdeadline. Both the DAX and CAC plunged more than 3%, a huge decline that left the German index under 11900 – just over a week ago it was at 12600 – and its French sibling the wrong side of 5400.
Hampered by its massive chunk of miners, alongside the slippery weight of BP and Shell, the FTSE shed 160 points. The UK index has suffered quite the comedown this week. Sterling’s slide and the M&A-boosted performances of Just Eat and LSE had pushed it above 7700, a level last seen around a year ago; now it is struggling to hold above a 2-month low of 7400.
It sums up the pound’s transition from July to August that the best thing that can be said about Friday is that its losses were capped at around 0.3%. A pathetic construction PMI of 45.3 provided evidence of why the currency is so worried about a no-deal Brexit; however, it was perhaps saved from another dive by the Lib Dems’ success in the Brecon and Radnorshire by-election. Nevertheless, cable is lurking near those recent 2 and a half year-lows, while against the euro it is barely above €1.09.