The markets maintained their mild North Korea losses this Monday, the reaction to the country’s nuclear test far more measured than when things began to ramp up a few weeks ago.
There were a couple of things keeping the FTSE from widening its 20 or so point decline this morning. Firstly, the likes of Fresnillo (LON:FRES) and Randgold Resources (LON:RRS) remained up between 1.5% and 2% as the day went on, boosted by gold’s own 10-month high-hitting rise. Then there were the pound’s own losses. Sterling dipped 0.1% against the dollar and 0.4% against the euro following an unexpected 1-year low construction PMI, with firms blaming Brexit uncertainty for the fall.
Over in the eurozone the DAX and CAC were down 0.5% and 0.3% respectively despite the region’s Sentix investor confidence creeping up from 27.7 to 28.2 month-on-month. That’s because the euro is making a decent go at recovering last week’s losses, with its gains against the pound joined by a 0.3% increase against the dollar.
As for this afternoon, with American investors indulging in their last chance to wear white for a while, it is hard to see any real change in trading unless there is a significant development in the North Korea situation. Admittedly that option isn’t off the table, especially if Donald Trump gets bored and takes to Twitter.
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