With US investors off celebrating – if that’s the right term – President’s Day, it looks like it is going to be a pretty quiet start to the week’s trading this Monday.
The FTSE continued to lurk just below 7300 after the bell, the UK index unable at the moment to muster the momentum required to substantially cross that latest key level. The pound, meanwhile, could barely be bothered to get out of bed, dipping 0.1% against the dollar to hold above $1.40 (down from last Friday’s $1.41-touching highs) and unchanged the wrong side of €1.129 against the euro.
Today’s empty economic calendar actually masks an incredibly busy week for the UK markets. Wednesday sees the latest jobs report, with wage growth expected to remain at 2.5% against inflation’s stubborn 3.0% levels, while Thursday brings with it the second estimate Q4 GDP reading.
Not only that, it is one of the most over-stuffed weeks for earnings since the year began, with the FTSE’s big four banking stocks, a decent chunk of the index’s miners, and the likes of InterContinental Hotels (LON:IHG), Barratt Developments (LON:BDEV), BAE Systems (LON:BAES), IAG (LON:ICAG), Pearson (LON:PSON), British American Tobacco (LON:BATS) and Centrica (LON:CNA) all reporting. If the market’s recent macro-trading doesn’t come to dominate, then such releases will likely become the FTSE’s main source of direction this week.
Over in the eurozone, the DAX and CAC were a bit perkier than their UK peer this Monday. The German index jumped 50 points, allowing it to hold above 12500, while the CAC jumped 0.2% to sit just shy of 5290.
As for Bitcoin, it looks like it’s prepared to carry on last week’s recovery. The cryptocurrency rose around 4% after the bell, taking it above $10800 for the first time since the end of January – roughly when all its early 2018 woes began.
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