It was another tricky start on Wednesday, despite last night’s well-received update by Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), as investors await July’s manufacturing PMIs and, more importantly, the evening’s Fed statement.
The FTSE slipped 60 points after the bell, plunging back under 7700 as it once again faced a tough morning of earnings updates and a trade war-fearing commodity sector. Though it announced a $2.2 billion dividend, a 26% surge in interim pre-tax profit to $6.7 billion and a 3% rise in revenue to $19.9 billion, this wasn’t enough for Rio Tinto (LON:RIO) to avoid the sector’s wider decline.
With copper falling nearly 2% following news that the Trump administration is set to raise pending tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese goods from 10% to 25%, the mining giant plunged 3.5%, greater than the also notable losses seen by BHP Billiton (LON:BLT), Anglo American (LON:AAL) and Glencore (LON:GLEN).
It appeared investors were disappointed that Next (LON:NXT) only posted a 2.8% rise in second quarter sales on Wednesday. While a fair whack ahead of expectations, that number was still well short of Q1’s 6% growth despite the UK’s prolonged heatwave, and crucially failed to lead to any revisions to the firm’s profit guidance, sending the retailer nearly 6% lower.
Things were a bit more cheery at Lloyds (LON:LLOY). Though the bank set aside another £460 million for PPI mis-selling claims, the fact that saga is coming to an end, alongside a 23% jump in pre-tax profit to £3.1 billion, kept investors onside, with the stock rising more than 2%.
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