Despite a decent start from the US, the European indices almost all drifted into the red on Wednesday afternoon.
The Dow Jones jumped 100 points after the bell, lifting the index back above 24920 for the first time in more than 2 weeks. The Dow is benefiting from rumours that that the trade tensions between the US and China may be easing – granted an oft-repeated statement that doesn’t hold that much water anymore – after the latter reportedly offered to buy $70 billion of the former’s agriculture and energy products.
This appeared to mean little to the eurozone indices, however. The DAX, CAC et al. all gave up their morning gains as the day went on, seemingly in response to ECB member Peter Praet’s comments about the central bank potentially signalling their intention to wind down the long-running stimulus programme in next week’s meeting. The German index, which at one point looked like it was going to hit 12900, slipped 0.3% to 12750, with the CAC down 0.7% and the FTSE MIB falling 0.5%. The euro, on the other hand, pushed half a percent higher against the dollar, tickling a fortnightly peak of $1.18, while taking 0.3% off the pound, sending sterling back below €1.14.
The FTSE, with little of its own to work with, shed its early growth, falling away from 7700 in the process. It didn’t help that both BP (LON:BP) and Shell (LON:RDSa) fell around half a percent apiece as Brent Crude itself ducked under $75 per barrel.
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