A much-needed move higher from the pound tipped the scales for the FTSE, while the Eurozone had a decent morning for data.
Though he has nothing to do with the eventual decision, the dollar came under pressure ahead of Wednesday night’s Federal Reserve meeting as Larry Kudlow – Director of the National Economic Council under Donald Trump – once again talked up the chances of a rate cut in the face of the USA’s soft inflation. Against the pound it shed half a percent, allowing cable to cross $1.299 for the first time in over a week, while the greenback was down 0.2% against the euro and 0.4% against the Japanese yen.
This shift caused the FTSE – which had been caught between the warmly received updates from Standard Chartered (LON:STAN) and BP (LON:BP), and its China manufacturing slowdown-hurt mining sector – to slip from its unchanged open, though its losses were capped at around 0.2%.
Neither the euro nor its related indices made much of what was an overall positive set of figures out of the Eurozone. With both Spain and Italy beating GDP expectations – the latter lifting out of recession in the process – the region-wide Q1 growth reading came in at a better than forecast 0.4%, double what was posted in Q4.
The Dow Jones appears to set to join in with the torpid trading after the bell, the futures pointing to a mild 0.1% increase. This despite Alphabet’s 7.5% slump after hours on Monday, the Google-parent missing first quarter sales forecasts by roughly $1 billion while posting a 13% drop in operating profit thanks to a €1.5 billion fine from the European Commission.
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