A truly colossal week for earnings – Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) on Tuesday, Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) on Wednesday and Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) on Thursday are the mere tip of the iceberg – got off to a horrendous start for the US markets.
Investors weren’t very hungry for Caterpillar (NYSE:CAT), the stock plunging 9% as adjusted earnings fell far short of forecasts. That one of the reasons for the miss was the now familiar sight of the sector-disregarding slowdown in China only made matters worse, reminding investors of just what is at stake with the resumption of the US-Sino trade talks this week.
The construction firm’s disappointing Q4 results was an awful way to kick off a hugely important period for company updates, and translated to a woeful start for the Dow Jones, which swiftly shed around 350 points to hit 24400.
Where the US goes Europe tends to follow, meaning the FTSE saw its losses double, the UK index dropping 0.9% to slip under 6750. The DAX, meanwhile, tumbled towards 12200 as it shed 0.6%, with the CAC stuck below 4900 after dropping 0.8%.
Elsewhere, the pound couldn’t reverse its Monday dip against either the dollar or the euro, remaining down 0.2% and 0.3% respectively. Still, that leaves it near its recent highs against both currencies, and, given the uncertainty over what will happen in tomorrow’s latest Commons Brexit vote, isn’t a bad showing from sterling at all.
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