The latest monthly UK GDP reading came to mean little to the markets as Wednesday went on, with much of Europe more interested in the situation between the EU and Italy.
August’s GDP reading came in at a disappointing 0.0% (but with July’s growth admittedly revised higher from 0.3% to 0.4%), while the manufacturing production figure remained unexpectedly unchanged at -0.2. Yet sterling broadly took this in its stride, holding at its 2 week and 4 month highs against the dollar and euro as investors chose to focus on reports that the EU and UK were close to a divorce deal, rather than data reflecting the economic cost of Brexit uncertainty.
As for the FTSE, it managed to trim its losses to a handful of points to sit just above 7230. Its Eurozone peers weren’t as lucky; the DAX and CAC shed 0.5% and 0.6% respectively, as investors continued to fret over the looming showdown between Italy and EU over the former’s Brussels-displeasing budget.
Looking ahead to the US open and the Dow Jones isn’t set to be up to much after the bell, with the futures pointing to a 0.1% increase. That’d keep the US index around the 26450 mark, allowing it to continue to avoid the kind of losses suffered over in Europe.
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