An initially bright start gradually faded as Tuesday went on, the European markets failing to find a reason to linger in the green.
The FTSE, which had opened the session by sauntering back across 7300, found itself down 0.4% as lunchtime neared. A robust set of gains in its mining sector – Rio Tinto (LON:RIO) rose 3.2%, while BHP Group (LON:BHPB) was up 1.7% – were countered by some banking losses, alongside issues at AstraZeneca (LON:AZN) and GlaxoSmithKline (LON:GSK).
The pound seems desperate to wrap up an utterly exhausting May in the quietest way it can, despite the political whirlwind either side of the weekend – a whirlwind that is going to stretch well into June as the Tories try and pick a new leader. Against both the dollar and euro, sterling fell 0.1%, keeping it near, if not quite at, the 4-month-plus lows struck at the end of last week.
With the FTSE in the red, and the DAX and CAC falling half a percent apiece, the Dow Jones is looking at its own 70 point decline this afternoon. That would undo a portion of its recent rebound, forcing it back under the 25600 mark it had managed to push past last Friday. Data-wise there is only the CB consumer confidence reading, which is expected to nudge up to 130.1 from 129.2 month-on-month.
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