A poor start from the Dow Jones meant that the FTSE had little chance of lessening its own losses on Thursday.
As the US and China continue to try and hash out a trade deal in Washington, the former endured a smattering of disappointing data this afternoon. Both the normal and core durable goods orders readings missed estimates, though were better than last month’s figures, while the flash manufacturing unexpectedly went it the wrong direction. This, alongside the lack of a substantial trade update, caused the Dow to drop 80 points after the bell, nipping in the bud the index’s hopes of crossing 26000 as promised by the futures.
The sentiment souring start from the US helped erode the Eurozone’s early gains. The DAX found itself flat just above 11400, while the CAC actually dropped 0.2%, keeping the French index from 5200.
Far and away the worst performer was the FTSE, suffering the kind of decline that has recently only occurred following a bad US-China trade twist or some positive Brexit noise for the pound. Yet it was neither of those things on Thursday. Instead the losses were of the more bread and butter kind, the UK index dropping 1% as it fell afoul of some of its big hitters. British Gas-parent Centrica (LON:CNA) saw its already sizeable slump expand to 12%, while BAE Systems (LON:BAES) found itself down 8% after a poorly received update and news that Germany would continue to boycott arms sales to Saudi Arabia.
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