Despite a record close for the Dow Jones, and the passing of the American Rescue Plan, the prospect of Thursday’s ECB meeting led to a quiet start for Europe.
The FTSE could really do with picking up the pace. While its miners – the index’s biggest burden this week – rebounded after the bell, the FTSE itself only managed a 0.1% increase, leaving it short of 6,750.
That’s not even a month high for the UK index. In comparison, the DAX is in all-time high territory, while the CAC was the one major index to significantly move, climbing past 6,000 for the first time in over a year.
While the markets survived Wednesday’s inflation obstacle, there is still pressure on Christine Lagarde’s ECB to reassure investors over the issue. That, as well as investors’ concerns surrounding the sluggish vaccine rollout in the bloc and the smatterings of fresh covid-19 outbreaks across the region.
Looking ahead and the Dow Jones looks ready to step in and gee the European markets up when the bell rings on Wall Street. At this point, a 0.3% increase still equates to a 100 point rise for the Dow, one that would push it beyond 32,400 for the first time in its history.
It is going to be interesting to see in the coming weeks what the Dow and the rest of the US markets focus on next, now that Biden’s stimulus package has been passed. In other words, how long the post-Plan honeymoon period will last, and how quickly investors will find a new cause du jour.
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