The FTSE managed to climb back towards 7280 this morning, after the pound saw its momentum sapped.
There were a few factors preventing sterling from getting back to its early in the week highs. First were the lingering effects of Mark Carney’s claim last night that any Bank of England rate hikes would be ‘limited and gradual’, as well as the continued negative reaction to Boris Johnson’s widely disparaged Brexit claims, which has brought Britain’s EU exit back to the forefront of investors’ minds.
Added to this was a pair of decent ZEW economic sentiment figures from the eurozone. The German figure smashed expectations to come in at 17.0, and while the region-wide reading missed estimates, it still improved to 31.7 from 29.3 month-on-month.
All this meant the pound went from being up 0.4% against the dollar to a rise of just 0.1%, while falling 0.2% against the euro, allowing the FSTE a 20-ish point increase. The euro also rose 0.3% against the greenback, in turn taking the DAX 0.2% lower and pegging the CAC at 5220.
Looking ahead to the afternoon and, without trying very hard, the Dow Jones is on track for yet another all-time high. The Dow futures are pointing to a mere 0.2% increase, a meagre rise that would nevertheless see the index open above 22350.
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