Nervously waiting for China to blast back following last week’s aggressive trade war volley from the US, the European indices limped through the open.
With last week’s trade talks failing to yield an agreement between Beijing and Washington – funny how that happens when you severely hike tariff rates between days 1 and 2 – and Trump continuing to tweet up a storm, investors are now braced for China’s retaliation, an attack that is yet to materialise.
Though its miners all drifted into the red, some light gains from BP (LON:BP) and Shell (LON:RDSa) meant the FTSE entered the week in slightly better shape than its peers. Starting the session down around 10 points, the UK index avoided dropping under 7200, a resilience that couldn’t prevent it from sitting at a 6 and a half week low. The FTSE is going to have to fight tooth and nail if it is going to cling onto that key level, given that at this early stage in trading the Dow Jones futures are suggesting the US index will plunge 300 points after the bell.
The DAX and CAC were in worse shape. The German index dropped 0.7%, once again sinking under 12000 having (naively) rebounded last Friday; its French cousin, meanwhile, was barely keeping its head above 5300 following a 0.5% fall.