The FTSE’s losses doubled as Friday went on, the UK index giving up all the growth managed in the aftermath of Jerome Powell’s surprising dovishness earlier in the week.
Dropping 70 points, the FTSE found itself back below 7000, a level it has repeatedly fallen under in the last few sessions, only to recover before trading is over.
An accelerated decline in its mining sector, which is struggling in light of an unexpected slowdown in Chinese manufacturing, and some sizeable losses for its housebuilders, despite a slight rise in UK house prices in November, was largely responsible for the fall.
The Eurozone admittedly wasn’t any better. The DAX was down 80 points, taking the German index the wrong side of 11250, while the CAC slipped back under 4970 as it fell 0.7%.
The pound, meanwhile, drifted lower as investors’ anxieties about Brexit – remember we are barrelling towards December 11th’s Parliamentary vote – took hold. Against the dollar it dropped 0.3%, returning cable to $1.275, with a 0.2% decline against the euro leaving it under €1.121.
As for the US open, the Dow Jones is set to join, if not match, the European losses when the bell rings on Wall Street. The forecast 90 point drop would leave it at or about 25250 – not bad considering it started the week, one which has been filled with Trump trade war threats, at 24350.
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