Following an up and down start to the week, Europe comparatively seemed to settle at the start of its midpoint, avoiding Monday and Tuesday’s big swings.
There was precious little movement from the major indices after the bell. The FTSE effectively sat flat at 5850, resisting the temptation to slide properly into the red despite BP (LON:BP), Shell (LON:RDSa) and basically its entire banking sector giving up a chunk of Tuesday’s gains.
Though it is unclear how much attention investors will give it, the UK’s main data-focus this Wednesday is the latest construction PMI, which is set to slide from 39.3 to 21.5 month-on-month.
With Germany revealing its sharpest ever slump in factory orders – they fell a whopping 15.6% in March – the DAX started trading at a loss, dropping below 10700 as it shed 60 points. The CAC followed its sibling’s lead, shed half a percent to duck under 4450.
A slither of hope for Europe is the fact the Dow Jones is currently scheduling in a 150 point increase later this afternoon, one that would once again see it mount an assault on 24000 after failing to close above that level on Tuesday.
Standing between now and then, however, is a taste of Friday’s potentially history-making nonfarm jobs report. The ADP (NASDAQ:ADP) unemployment change reading is set to show 20 million jobs were lost in April, a figure that sits a smidge below the 21.4 million forecasts for the headline nonfarm figure set to arrive at the end of the week.
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