Europe kept a smile plastered on its face this Friday; the Dow Jones, however, was slightly more reticent.
The Dow’s unwillingness to do anything more than add 0.1% is perhaps well-founded. Donald Trump is facing impeachment over allegedly seeking aid from Ukraine to impact the 2020 election. That not long after he was claiming a US-China trade deal could arrive sooner than people think stank of distraction tactics, meaning that, after an initial rise following those comments earlier in the week, the Dow hasn’t really moved from 29600.
With reports Germany might be open to boosting public spending in order to tackle lacklustre growth, and impending European Commission economic chief Paolo Gentiloni arguing for just that, the Eurozone indices were keen to end a week that began with some disastrous PMIs on a positive note. The DAX rose 0.6%, while the CAC climbed 0.2% (admittedly down on its earlier growth).
Though, of course, it helped that its commodity and banking sectors were firmly in the green, it seems only one thing really matters to the FTSE at the moment: watching sterling squirm. The pound remained under pressure on Friday, fears of a general election keeping it at 3-week and 2-week lows against the dollar and euro respectively. In response the UK index jumped 50 points, pushing it past 7400 for the first time in almost 2-months.
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