Not a lot happened this afternoon – not even a new record high for the Dow Jones, which had gradually become a regular fixture in the last fortnight.
Instead the Dow dipped 30 points after the bell, taking the index back below 22400. It’ll be interesting to see as the US session goes on (and the week wraps up tomorrow) if this signals the end of the Dow’s latest all-time high hitting push. In Europe the FTSE remained stuck to the wrong side of 7300 with a meagre 5 point rise, while the DAX and CAC put in the best performances with 0.3% and 0.6% increase respectively.
As for the forex markets, the dollar spent the afternoon giving back some of yesterday’s Fed-inspired growth. Cable managed to climb back above $1.35 with a 0.2% rise, with the euro similarly re-crossing $1.19 thanks to a 0.3% increase.
Elsewhere there were some big movements from reporting UK companies. Capita (LON:CPI) suffered its latest wince-worthy drop, slipping 10% after posting a horrible 26% plunge in pre-tax profit to £28 million thanks to a series of one-off measures. This was exacerbated by the news that the company’s staff is set to hold a 6-day strike at the start of October due to a clash over pensions.
Harvester and Toby Carvery owner Mitchells & Butlers (LON:MAB) also fell this Thursday, dropping 5%; while like-for-like sales rose 1.6% year-on-year, a warning on its margins eroded investors’ confidence in the stock.
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