By Connor Campbell, Financial Analyst, Spreadex
Little changed this afternoon, with the market becoming less interesting as Thursday wore on.
The Dow Jones sporadically slipped back under 21800 after the bell, investors continuing to chew over Donald Trump’s threat to shut down the government if Congress doesn’t green-light his Mexican wall-building plans. This didn’t bother the European indices, however; the FTSE charged ahead with a half a percent rise, while the DAX and CAC rose 0.2% and 0.1% respectively.
As for the forex markets, the pound continued to trade higher against both the dollar and euro, though lost some of its lustre against the latter, halving its gains from 0.4% to 0.2%. Sterling aside, the greenback also rose this Thursday, climbing 0.2% against both the euro and the yen.
The dollar and the euro should find themselves firmly in focus tomorrow as Janet Yellen and Mario Draghi prepare to address those in attendance at the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium. The ECB has already hinted the Draghi won’t use Friday’s speech to signal any major shift in the central bank’s policies. Similar tentativeness is expected from Yellen, though investors will be on the lookout for signs relating to a) when the Fed will start reducing its balance sheet (something that could happen as early as next month, and b) whether there will be another rate hike before the end of 2017. The only frustration is that both speeches are rather late in the date – Yellen at 5pm BST, Draghi at 8pm – meaning the markets may be in an anticipatory state for most of Friday.
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