The FTSE’s losses really ramped up as Wednesday went on, the prospect of Trump potentially more than doubling the proposed tariffs on Chinese goods wiping out the index’s July-closing growth.
The Footsie dropped around 100 points, plunging from Tuesday’s 7750-hitting month and a half highs to return to the 7650-7700 trading bracket that it lolled about in for most of July.
With Brent Crude shedding 1.1% and copper falling 2.4%, the brunt of the FTSE’s fall came from the commodity sector; Rio Tinto (LON:RIO) dropped more than 4% despite a very good set of half year results, while BHP Billiton (LON:BLT) slipped 2.6%, BP (LON:BP) 1.3% and Shell (LON:RDSa) 1%.
It didn’t help that last month’s UK manufacturing PMI was something of a disappointment, coming in at 54.0 against the 54.2 forecast and the 54.3 seen in June. That miss also impacted the pound, which failed to gain ground against either the dollar or the euro despite the prospect of a Bank of England rate hike on Thursday.
Looking to this afternoon and the Dow Jones is facing a 30 point fall when the bell rings on Wall Street. The US index could end up in the green, however, dependent on the performance of Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) following last night’s well-received Q3 results.
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