With the markets coming out of the week’s testing UK and US inflation readings largely unscathed, the European indices could indulge in a fairly relaxed open this Thursday.
Thought not particularly exciting, the addition of another 20 or so points lifted the FTSE above 7240, leaving the index at its best price in around a week. The DAX was also up 0.3%, while the CAC managed a more substantial 0.7% increase.
Give that these gains are coming after the hawkish, and higher than forecast, inflation figures out of the UK and US, it appears that investors have become slightly more accepting of any impending increase in interest rates. Or, at the very least, they saw little in Tuesday’s and Wednesday’s data to speed up the schedules laid out by the Federal Reserve and Bank of England in the last few weeks.
Despite the hawkish tinge to yesterday’s inflation data the dollar is continuing to look damn weak, reverting to the fragile state that defined its end to 2017 and start to 2018. Against the pound and the euro the greenback fell 0.4%, sending cable back above $1.40 while allowing the single currency to tickle January’s $1.25 3 year highs. As for against the yen, the dollar dropped a another half a percent, leaving it at a fresh 15 month nadir.
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