Despite further progress in Germany – with it looking increasingly likely that Angela Merkel’s CDU-CSU will get back in bed with their former SPD coalition partners – the markets got off to a quietly negative start this Monday.
The FTSE quickly found itself the wrong side of 7400 after the bell, dipping 20 points in large part thanks to the reddish hue of its commodity stocks. Sterling, meanwhile, started the week broadly flat against both the dollar and the euro, at $1.333 against the former and around the €1.117.
Neither currency nor index has got a lot to work with this Monday, the week properly starting with the results of the bank stress tests tomorrow. The day’s calendar is a barren wasteland, the only highlight being an afternoon speech from Andy Haldane – and even that is undermined by the fact that the Bank of England chief economist is set to speak about the institution's education and communication strategy.
There was a bit more movement in the eurozone. At best the euro managed to rise 0.1% against both the dollar and the pound, an increase inspired by the cooling of the political drama in Germany. That progress couldn’t help the DAX, however, which dropped 0.2% alongside the CAC after the bell.
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