Despite December’s improvements, the US-China trade war once again helped to drag the European indices lower as Friday got underway.
Sparking this latest round of losses was the overnight data out of China. While fixed asset investment rose from 5.7% to 5.9% as expected, industrial production and retail sales both took an unexpected, but foreseeable, nose-dive, tumbling to 5.4% and 8.1% respectively.
It’s not only more evidence that the superpower’s economy is slowing down, but another reminder of the impact the trade tensions between the US and China are having, despite the stop-start progress made between the pair in the last fortnight or so.
Obviously the FTSE’s miners took a hit, contributing to the index’s 1% slide – one that returns it to 6800 – after the bell. The DAX and CAC was just as unhappy, dropping 1.2% and 0.9% respectively.
As for the pound, now that Theresa May has vanquished a vote of no confidence the currency can get back to focusing on the depressing state of her attempts at Brexit. Falling half a percent against the dollar – cable ducked back under $1.26 in the process – and 0.3% against the euro, sterling slumped in the face of the latest round of rejections from the EU, May’s desperate attempts to save her deal so far proving pretty useless.
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