The pound’s miserable morning continued this Friday; the US markets, meanwhile, await the third quarter growth data.
It seems that yesterday’s truly dismal retail figures from the CBI – which, in October, showed the sharpest decline since the recession – have helped spark some late in the week jitters about whether or not the Bank of England will raise rates next Thursday. This has forced the pound half a percent lower against the dollar, dragging it below $1.31, and 0.3% against the euro, which admittedly sterling surged against on Thursday. This in turn allowed the FTSE to climb 0.2%, pushing the index back above 7500 having struck 7425 earlier in the week.
Over in the eurozone the region’s indices were in a very good mood indeed, carried over from yesterday’s ‘open-ended’ QE comments from Mario Draghi. The DAX rose nearly 80 points, crossing 13200 for the first time in its history, while the CAC grazed 5500 with a 0.8% rise. Only the IBEX fell, dropping 0.7% as the Spanish government prepared to impose direct rule on Catalonia. As for the euro, it continued to slide 0.3% against the dollar, leaving the currency at its worst price for 3 months.
Looking to this afternoon and the Dow Jones is set for a relatively quiet open, with the futures pointing to a 40 point increase. Those gains could expand dependent on a) how much Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) rises following yesterday’s stellar Q3 results, and b) the state of the Q3 GDP reading, which is forecast to come in at 2.7% (at the annualised rate) against 3.1% in Q2.
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