Having bravely soldiered on in the face of Donald Trump firing the first proper shot in a US-China trade war, news that Beijing had responded in kind, with a 25% tariff on $34 billion in American imports, caused the markets to shed their early growth.
The fact the European indices didn’t then plunge into the red is to be applauded. The FTSE trickled 10 or so points lower, ducking back under 7600, while the DAX and CAC sat effectively unchanged at 12470 and 5370 respectively. The forex markets were similarly quiet, with the dollar dipping 0.1% against the pound and 0.2% against the euro.
That could all change, however, dependent on the tone of the US open. Currently the Dow Jones is set to slip by around 60 points after the bell, a move that would take the index back below 24300. If those losses were to increase in the run up to the US session then the situation in Europe could take a turn for the worse.
How the Dow starts may be down to Friday’s non-farm jobs report. The headline figure is expected to slip from 223k to 195k month-on-month, with wage growth unchanged at 0.3% and the unemployment rate steady at 3.8%.
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