Continuing to ignore the fact that US officials have denied it’s the case, the European markets got hella excited about the reports that Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is keen lift tariffs on Chinese imports.
The FTSE, which had been a tad more reticent to join in with Friday’s growth than its Eurozone peers, doubled its commodity-led gains as lunchtime approached. That left the UK index with a 100 point increase, one that pushed it past the 6900 and back to levels last struck a week ago. The DAX, meanwhile, built on its 6 week peak, teasing 11100, with the CAC at a one month-plus high of 4870 after jumping 1.6%.
Crucially the Dow Jones, which rallied on Thursday evening, is set to rise after the bell rings on Wall Street. With a 0.5% increase pencilled in for this afternoon, the Dow is sniffing around 24500, gradually clawing back more of the growth it lost across December.
Aiding the FTSE’s gains was the pound’s Friday pullback. Having hit a 2 month high against both the pound and the euro on Thursday as it processed a Telegraph report about a second Brexit referendum, sterling dropped 0.4% and 0.5% respectively. Though it was already in the red before the release, a 19 month low UK retail sales reading didn’t help, the confirmation of the country’s rather dire consumer climate.
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