The giddy optimism that defined the morning session wasn’t quite sustained as Wednesday went – however, a dose of reality only tempered, rather than erased, the Western gains.
The Dow Jones ended up rising 85 points after the bell, a long way off the 25450-bothering growth suggested by the futures.
The FTSE, meanwhile, saw its own gains trimmed to 0.6%, roughly half of its initial surge, with the DAX and CAC rising 0.6% and 1% respectively, both off their intraday highs.
A balancing act was at play on Wednesday, between negatives like the US-China tensions (and how Hong Kong plays into them) and the economic hardships caused by the pandemics, and positives like the lockdown-easing measures the markets so eagerly celebrated on Tuesday, and news of €750 billion EU recovery fund on top of a €1.1 trillion budget.
Looking beyond coronavirus, and the pound saw the gains it managed following Boris Johnson’s retail reopening plan obliterated as Brexit negotiator David Frost admitted before the House of Commons that a ‘big gap’ remains between the UK and EU. Against dollar and euro alike sterling fell 0.9%, yesterday’s relief punctured by a reminder of the other national crisis the UK is facing.
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