British banking stocks are a mixed bag even though they all passed the Bank of England’s (BoE) stress test. Despite been given a clean bill of health, Lloyds (LON:LLOY), RBS (LON:RBS) and Barclays (LON:BARC) are in the red, while HSBC (LON:HSBA) and Standard Chartered (LON:STAN) are in positive territory. Barclays and RBS were cited as the weakest of the bunch. BoE Chief, Mark Carney, stated the UK banking system can withstand the UK leaving the EU, but a ‘disorderly’ and ‘sharp’ Brexit could be costly. HSBC and Standard Chartered have far more exposure to emerging markets than they do to Europe, which is helping the share price this morning.
Ocado (LON:OCDO) shares are up 18.6% after the online grocer announced a tie up with Groupe Casino in France. The British retailer has long promised to strike up an international partnership, and it finally delivered on their commitment. Groupe Casino stores account for just over 11% of all grocery stores in France, and the tie-up should be beneficial to both companies.
EUR/USD is largely today as the bounce back in the greenback has curtailed any gains. The single currency has been pushing higher versus the US dollar since early November and it appears it is going to resume the wider upward trend that has been in place in 2017.
GBP/USD lost some ground in the wake of the update from Mark Carney of the BoE. The head of the UK central bank stated there would be some economic ‘pain’ if the UK had a ‘sharp’ and ‘disorderly’ Brexit. The pound has been gaining ground against the US dollar throughout November so a bit of a pullback isn’t a surprise.
We are expecting to hear from William Dudley and Jerome Powell of the Federal Reserve at 2.15pm and 2.45pm (UK time) respectively.
We are expecting the Dow Jones to open up 35 points at 23,615, and we are calling the S&P 500 up 3 points at 2604.
At 2pm (UK time) the US will announce the house price index for September, and for a year-on-year basis the consensus is for a 6.1% rise, and that compares with the previous reading of 5.9%.
Christopher & Banks (NYSE:CBK) will announce their third-quarter figures today.
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