A broadly upbeat European session continued in the face of a variety of macro-tensions, the region’s indices trading higher on the hopes that Italian PM-designate Carlo Cottarelli and President Sergio Mattarella can form a stop-gap government.
The FTSE MIB and euro was the main focus this Wednesday. The former jumped nearly 1.5%, more than doubling its gains as the day went on, though that could disappear if the current talks result in a snap election.
As for the single currency, it lifted from last night’s 10 month lows against the dollar with a sizeable 0.7% rise, while adding 0.6% against the pound. Elsewhere the DAX and CAC were up 0.5% and 0.2% respectively, their rebounds admittedly only just taking the tip off of Tuesday’s losses.
The FTSE spent Wednesday drifting in whatever direction its eurozone peers appeared to be headed, as is the emptiness of its economic and corporate calendars. Yet the UK index could only muster a 0.2% increase, leaving it around 250 points off of the (brief) 7900 all-time high struck last Tuesday, a decline that can only partially be blamed on the issues in Italy.
Turning to the US open and the Dow Jones is set to follow its European counterparts higher, with the futures suggesting a 160 point jump after the bell. That would shoot the index back above 24500, and suggests that investors are taking Trump’s latest China tariff tantrum in their stride.
Unlike in Europe, there is also some fairly important data for the US to grapple with this Wednesday. The ADP non-farm figure is set to drop from 204k to 191k month-on-month ahead of Friday’s official number, while the 2nd estimate Q1 GDP reading is set to remain unchanged at 2.3% at the annualised rate.
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