While the Eurozone indices had their wings clipped by the latest reminder of the region’s rocky economy, the FTSE approached its recent 4 month peak following the morning’s UK inflation data.
Rising more than half a percent, the FTSE found itself teasing 7180, only a handful of points off last week’s highs. This as inflation fell below the Bank of England’s 2% target for the first time in 2 years, tumbling to a lower than forecast 1.8% in January.
As it did on Monday, when it was revealed the UK economy actually contracted in December, sterling was fairly calm in its response, dipping around 0.2% against the dollar – cable is now dancing around $1.288 – while sitting flat against the euro. Still enough, however, to give the UK index an extra boost.
With industrial production dropping 0.9% against the 0.4% decline forecast – nevertheless an improvement on the previous month’s 1.7% plunge – the Eurozone struggled to continue the aggressive rebound that defined the first half of the week. Instead the DAX and CAC edged up by 0.1% apiece, a far cry from the pair’s initial gains.
Holding onto its hopes of a trade war deal, the Dow Jones is looking for a 75 point rise after the bell, one that would leave it a smidge off 25500 and at a fresh 2 month high – that’s quite the journey in the last week or so, given that at points in the last 7 days it has traded below 25000. Before it can post that growth, however, the Dow has to deal with the US inflation reading, forecast to rise from -0.1% to 0.1% month-on-month.
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