European stocks are higher on the session as the broadly bullish theme across the Continent continues. With recent record-highs on the FTSE 100 and multi-month highs on the DAX and CAC 40, the bulls are firmly in control.
Morrisons (LON:MRW) issued a positive trading statement as like-for-like sales excluding fuel rose by 2.8% for the 10 weeks until early January. The bulk of that sales increase came from the retail business and the remainder came from the wholesale side. The supermarket has a tie-up with Ocado (LON:OCDO), and the online sales jumped by 10%. The cost of household goods has been rising across the board, but Morrrisons saw transactions increase by 2.3% in the past 10 weeks. The share price is up 1.8%, and has been rising since late 2015 and if the positive move continues it could target 254p.
Carillion (LON:CLLN) shares are down 5.6% ahead of the company’s rescue meeting tomorrow. Traders are on tender hooks as tomorrow’s meeting could be make or break for the company. The struggling construction firm will be seeking to write-off on debt and it aims to sell-off non-core assets in order raise funds. Until the details are published tomorrow investors will be steering clear of Carillion.
EUR/USD is still suffering from the rally in the US dollar and even though Germany and Italy posted respectable economic updates, it still wasn’t enough to halt the decline. German industrial production in November jumped by 3.4% and in the same month Italian unemployment rate slipped to 11%.
GBP/USD has been hit again by the bounce back in the US dollar. There are no major economic announcements out from the UK today so the pound may be at the mercy of the US dollar.
At 3pm (UK time) the US will report the Job Opening and Labour Turnover Summary (JOLTS) and traders are expecting a reading of 6.05 million, up from 6 million in October.
We are expecting the Dow Jones to open up 32 points at 25,315, and we are calling the S&P 500 up 1 point at 2748.
DISCLAIMER: CMC Markets is an execution only provider. The material (whether or not it states any opinions) is for general information purposes only, and does not take into account your personal circumstances or objectives. Nothing in this material is (or should be considered to be) financial, investment or other advice on which reliance should be placed.
No opinion given in the material constitutes a recommendation by CMC Markets or the author that any particular investment, security, transaction or investment strategy is suitable for any specific person.