While its European peers managed to turn things around as Tuesday went on, the FTSE stubbornly remained in the red.
Blame it on the commodities. With Brent Crude under $58.30 per barrel after dropping 1.4% thanks to renewed supply glut concerns, and copper shedding 1% due to persistent fears over slowing global growth, the UK index fell 45 points. And while that’s a slight improvement on its morning lows, it still leaves the FTSE lurking at the 2 year nadir struck at the start of the month.
Not helping the FTSE’s case was the pound’s surprising sprightliness. Against the dollar it climbed half a percent, allowing cable to cross $1.269, as the greenback appeared to have a pre-Fed wobble ahead of Wednesday’s meeting. Sterling’s gains were far less impressive against the euro, though even a 0.1% rise is something given the current political circus.
As mentioned, the Eurozone indices did a better job than the FTSE of picking themselves up and dusting themselves off on Tuesday. Despite an unexpected drop in German business confidence, the DAX managed to eke out a 0.3% increase, with the CAC erasing its initial 0.7% decline to sit flat at 4800.
Turning to this afternoon and the Dow Jones is set to attempt a (minor) comeback, the futures pointing to a 150-ish point rise when the bell rings on Wall Street. That’d push it above 23700, having at one point on Monday dived below 23500.
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