As has been the case almost every time the markets have surged on a vaccine update, the rally proved to be short-lived, with Europe waking up in a contemplative mood on Tuesday.
To be fair, it’s hard to build on Monday’s growth when the session saw a week’s worth of very strong gains packed into a few hours.
It was a remarkable showing if one that eventually saw the Dow Jones miss out on a record high close as it pared its growth from a 1,400-plus points peak to around 840 points.
In Europe, the indices remained aggressive until the end of the session. That means the FTSE is now above 6200 for the first time since mid-August, despite adding just 0.2% after the bell.
This follows a mixed bag jobs report, one that saw better than forecast wage growth and claimant count readings of 1.3% and -29.8k – compared to the 1.0% and 20.3k expected – joined by a worse than estimated increase in the headline unemployment rate, which now sits at 4.8%.
Over in the Eurozone, the CAC put in a similar shift to the FTSE, rising a handful of points to hit an 8-month high of 5340.
Only the DAX stepped out of line, falling 100 points to leave it in danger of slipping the wrong side of 13,000.
Breathless after the last 7 days – the vote is already one week ago! – the Dow Jones is heading for its own slow start, at most set to add 50 points. Enough, mind, to push it back above 29,200.
That would suggest investors aren’t taking too seriously news that US attorney general Bill Barr – an ardent member of Trump’s corrupt cabal – has authorized federal prosecutors to begin investigating ‘substantial allegations of voting and vote tabulation irregularities’, in another major break from American political norms.
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