As the markets await the outcome of Thursday’s crucial OPEC+ meeting, and with the US jobless claims data on its way, a few nerves started to creep into trading.
Though it’s lost half of the growth seen at the start of the session, the FTSE nevertheless was one of the better performing indices as lunchtime approached, holding onto an 70 points increase. That kept it just above 5700, the index benefiting from a solid chunk of green in its banking sector.
The Eurozone indices weren’t as lucky. Both the DAX and CAC had started Thursday up more than 2% apiece, only to see their gains completely erased as the morning went on.
The biggest shift occurred in the Dow Jones futures. Earlier in the day the Dow was looking at a 250 point climb when the bell rings on Wall Street; now it is facing an 125 point fall, one that would push it under 23300.
Where the Dow does end up this afternoon may well be dependent on the unemployment claims reading. Then again, investors haven’t paid too much attention to that number – beyond an initial wobble in the minutes after the release – in the last fortnight, so the US index’s day may be more dictated by what comes out of that OPEC+ get together.
Regardless, analysts are expecting another 5 million jobless claims for the week ending 4th April. Yet given how much higher the readings have been across the last 2 weeks, we could be looking at something a lot worse.
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