Europe continued a fairly bland, if positive, session on Thursday, with the Dow Jones all set to echo the continent’s mild gains.
Ignoring the potential for a fresh US-China bust-up, the markets were fairly aimless in their growth. With the pound’s sinking even further against the dollar and euro, falling 0.4% apiece – against the single currency it is heading for its worst close in July – the FTSE was able to juice its gains, climbing 0.6%.
Sterling’s issues appear to stem from both the lack of progress in the UK-EU Brexit talks, and the rapidly shrinking window to secure a deal, and a record decline in factory output between May and July.
That puts the UK index ahead of the DAX, which rose half a percent to 13170, and the CAC, which jumped 0.4% to 5050.
As for the Dow Jones, a 0.3% increase after the bell would lift it near 27100, its best price in over 6-weeks. It would perhaps be facing a stronger open, however, if it weren’t for Microsoft’s post-market decline following last night’s Q4 results. Though revenue and earnings were both notably higher than forecast – the tech company has benefited from a ‘stay-at-home’ quarter – investors were unhappy with the firm’s tame Q1 guidance.
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