A decent showing in Asia helped the European indices push slightly higher as the first full week of 2019 got underway.
Investors appear to be taking their cue both from Jerome Powell, who insisted last week that the Federal Reserve would be ‘patient’ about rate rises and that the central bank is ‘listening sensitively’ to the markets, and the impending trade talks between the US and China in Beijing this Monday.
The FTSE was the least enthused of the major indices, rising a paltry 0.1% to lurk just above 6840. The Eurozone was a bit better, though not by a huge amount; the DAX climbed 0.3%, unable to cross 10800 in doing so, while the CAC added 0.2% as it tickled 4740.
As for the forex markets, the pound was unchanged against the dollar, with cable sitting the wrong side of $1.274 having largely recovered from last Tuesday’s New Year plunge. Against the euro, meanwhile, it shed 0.3%, dipping back under €1.115 in the process.
All the big stuff data and earnings-wise is saved for later in the week – the UK GDP and US inflation figures are on Friday, while from Tuesday onwards there are a slew of updates from Britain’s beleaguered retailers – meaning Monday might be a testy, US-focused day of trading.
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