The European indices continued to chug along quite nicely this Monday morning, with a flurry of data out of the eurozone keeping spirits high.
As ever the FTSE was a bit of a laggard, failing to match the enthusiasm of its German and French peers. However, the index remained in all-time high territory with a 0.2% increase, and, at 7720, is only a handful of points away from breaking the record set in the initial moments of Monday morning’s trading. If it is to do so then the FTSE needs to overcome the duel obstacles of the 17% plunge endured by Micro Focus (LON:MCRO) (LON:MCRO) – thank god Mothercare (LON:MTC), which is down a nausea-inducing 25%, isn’t part of the UK’s flagship index – and sterling’s 0.3% increase against the euro.
It’s interesting that the euro is at a loss against both the pound and the dollar, where it has fallen 0.4%, considering the rise in the eurozone’s economic and investor confidence readings for December. The DAX and CAC ended up benefiting the most from this cheery outlook, with both indices jumping half a percent. The German index is now sitting just 150 or so points from November’s 13500-crossing all-time high – remarkable given that it started 2018 the wrong side of 12900.
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Looking ahead to this afternoon and the Dow Jones is set to climb 50 points when the bell rings on Wall Street to 25330-ish, leaving it plenty of room to do what it does best – saunter to fresh record highs. There’s not much else for the Dow to do really, beyond wait for talks from FOMC members Raphael Bostic and John Williams later this evening.