Friday’s trading continued to be rather uninspiring, investors unwilling to make too much noise in the face of little data and a host of macro concerns.
The FTSE added just a handful of points as lunchtime approached, the rebound from its mining stocks – led higher by copper recovering 1% – countered by a decline in the house-building sector following the news that UK mortgage approvals fell 0.8% in July.
The Eurozone was only a tad more exciting, with the DAX and CAC rising 0.2% and 0.4% respectively, the gains from the former still not allowing the German index to cross 12400.
Likely contributing to the European sluggishness was the dollar’s dip against the pound and the euro. Against both the greenback fell 0.3%, the currency slipping seemingly in response to the lack of progress between the US and China during the week’s trade talks. Things could change this afternoon, however, with the Donald Trump-angering Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell set to deliver a speech at the Jackson Hole Symposium.
As for the US open, the Dow Jones is set to rise 0.3% after the bell, pushing the US index back across the 25700 mark it dipped beneath on Thursday. Data-wise investors have the durable goods orders readings to look forward to; the non-core figure is set to fall from 0.8% to -0.7%, but with the core number rising from 0.2% to 0.5%.
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