It’s been a relatively quiet start to the trading day in London this morning with the FTSE 100 flat and the pound little changed.
Stocks to receive another boost?
Developments from across the channel have provided the main driving force for UK stocks so far this week, but traders may now turn their attention west and look across the Atlantic for the next move. Over the weekend whilst the focus was on the French presidential election, US President Trump tweeted a message regarding his highly anticipated tax reform and promised a “big” announcement on Wednesday.
Substantial tax cuts were widely cited as one of the primary reasons for the Trump rally in stocks since his election to the Oval office, but recent struggles in reforming Obamacare has raised doubts on his ability to fulfill on his election promises. Traders will now be looking for signs that Trump not only intends to pursue significant tax cuts but that he is also treating them as a high priority and a meaningful announcement today would go some way to allaying fears that his administration will be politically frustrated and unable to push through their desired changes.
Standard Chartered rallies after earnings beat
Whilst the broader index is pretty much flat on the day, there has still been some significant moves in individual stocks with Standard Chartered (LON:STAN) one of the most noteworthy. The London-listed bank has seen its stock rise by more than 3% after reporting a large increase in first-quarter profits, nearly doubling last year’s equivalent. Statutory pre-tax profit of $990m were declared on revenues of $3.6bn with a 58% drop in loan impairments to $198m one of the contributing factors.
The news will be warmly welcomed by investors who have seen the stock slide in recent weeks with the 2017-low printed just over a week ago. In the bigger picture the strong report could be seen as a bellwether for other banks with Lloyds Banking Group (LON:LLOY), Barclays (LON:BARC) and Royal Bank of Scotland Group (LON:RBS) all set to release their latest earnings before the week is out.