Further evidence that China’s economy is starting to wilt under the trade war pressure – the country’s latest private sector-assessing Caixin PMI dropped to a 28 month low following a services sector slump – led to a pretty muted open in Europe this Monday.
That the European indices weren’t in worse shape after the bell is somewhat notable, given that the Asian session saw another round of losses following the latest example of Beijing’s economic problems.
The FTSE was almost unchanged after the bell, arms-crossed at the 7100 mark. A 0.9% drop from copper could cause issues if it puts the wind up the mining sector, however, with Antofagasta (LON:ANTO) and BHP Billiton (LON:BLT) already exhibiting signs of fatigue.
As for the pound, it managed to make slight progress against both the dollar and the euro. Cable rose 0.2% to knock on the door of $1.30, still down from last Friday’s $1.305-tickling week-and-a-half peak, while against the single currency it was up 0.3% to re-cross €1.141.
How sterling spends the rest of the day may be dependent on the day’s October services PMI. Last week saw a 27 month-low manufacturing reading followed by a better than forecast, 3 month high construction PMI; the services finale might be closer to the former, with analysts expecting it to slip from 53.9 to 53.4 month-on-month.
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