What was set to be the afternoon’s biggest story – a better than forecast US Q3 GDP number – was gazumped this Friday by the news that Catalan parliament has voted to declare independence from Spain.
The move comes just hours before Mariano Rajoy and his national government are set to impose direct, and further heightens the tensions between the two sides. It also tore down the Spanish IBEX, which shed 1.2% after the result of the Catalan vote was announced, losing much of Thursday’s growth in the process.
The euro also took a bit of a knock, but not much; the currency’s decline against the dollar widened to 0.4%, while it fell 0.1% against the pound. The rest of the eurozone indices weren’t at all bothered, with the DAX and CAC both remaining at record highs are rising around half a percent.
As for that US Q3 GDP reading, it came in at 3.0% against the 2.7% forecast and the 3.1% managed in Q2, a beat made all the more impressive considering the hurricanes that impacted the country during the quarter.
Yet with a December rate hike from the Fed already pretty much locked on the news didn’t make much different to the dollar, which was already substantially up against the pound and euro. The Dow Jones, meanwhile, could only open flat at 23400, despite the fact that Google-parent Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) rocketed nearly 7% higher following last night’s Q3 results.
In the UK, the FTSE slowed down as the day went on, struggling to keep its head above 7500 with a 10 point increase. That’s because sterling saw its losses against the dollar contract to 0.4%, allowing cable to claw its way back to $1.31.
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