Though hardly exciting, the European markets did at least shift from their unchanged starting points as Monday went on.
A minor decline for the pound, one that followed a 10 month low UK construction PMI (which itself comes after last Friday’s troubling manufacturing equivalent), allowed the FTSE to hit a fresh 2 month high. Sterling dipped 0.1% against the dollar and the euro, a slip that translated to a 0.3%, 7040-grazing increase for the UK index.
The eurozone, which saw an unexpected drop in Sentix investor confidence, wasn’t looking too well. The DAX lost 0.3%, forcing the German index back under 11150, while the CAC was down half a percent, a move that dragged it below 5000.
At the moment the Dow Jones is looking just as dull as its European peers did earlier in the day, the futures suggesting the index will start the week flat at 25050. Beyond the rescheduled factory orders figure, which is expected to bounce from -2.1% to 0.3% month-on-month, there isn’t a whole lot for the US markets to grapple with, the juiciest release, Alphabet’s Q4 results, happening after hours.
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