A mixed bag of European services PMIs did little to change the bloody scenes this Monday – with the US open unlikely to help matters this afternoon.
With the UK services data completing a trio of disappointing January PMIs, coming in at 53.0 against the 54.1 expected and the 54.2 seen in December, the FTSE only saw its losses increase as the day went on. The UK index fell nearly 100 points to hit a fresh 8 week nadir of just under 7350, wallowing with, rather than overjoyed at, the pound’s own losses, with sterling down 0.2% against both the dollar and the euro.
As for the Eurozone, the single currency took most of the juice from the region’s surprise 11 year high services PMI, leaving the DAX and CAC to drop 1% and 1.2% respectively. The German index is now trading at levels not seen since the end of September last year, while its French counterpart is flirting with a 2018 low.
Looking to this afternoon and the US open appears set to open the markets’ wounds even further, with the Dow Jones facing a 200 point drop when the bell rings on Wall Street. That kind of decline would leave the Dow straining to keep its head above 25300 – that’s a near 1400 drop from where it was this time last week, and the index’s worst price in a month.
Bitcoin, meanwhile, remained on the back foot, plunging more than 6% to lurk just above $7600 per coin. Following on from last week’s South Korea regulation change/Facebook ad ban/CFTC investigation triple-whammy, Bitcoin is now dealing with the added pressures of Lloyds (LON:LLOY) preventing the use of its credit cards to buy the cryptocurrency AND reports of a further crackdown on the product in China.
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