Beaten up on Thursday by a dour set of growth forecasts from the European Commission and Bank of England, the European indices found little reason to rebound on Friday as investors digested the latest trade developments between the US and China.
It now seems the superpowered pair might not reach an agreement before the ceasefire, well, ceases at the start of March. Donald Trump said it is unlikely he will meet with President Xi Jinping before the deadline, meaning there is nothing to prevent the US and China to start re-hiking tariffs over spring.
Helping to prevent a more severe set of European losses, however, was the fact a tete-a-tete between the two nations in Beijing is still scheduled for next week, keeping the door just about open for a last minute deal.
The DAX, which had a nightmare yesterday, dipped 0.2% to sit a smidge above 11000; the CAC, meanwhile, started the session the wrong side of 5000. As for the FTSE, it eked out a 0.2% increase, one that pushed it back across 7100.
Sterling, after riding the Bank of England ‘Super Thursday’ roller coaster, fell 0.2% against the dollar, forcing cable under $1.294, but opened unchanged against the euro, remaining above €1.141.
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