Sterling continued to give a chunk back of the week’s growth this Friday, falling half a percent against the dollar and 0.1% against the euro.
This fall came despite a 4 year high manufacturing PMI in November, with the pound seemingly struggling to completely justify its recent highs without another Brexit breakthrough titbit to sate investors.
As for the FTSE, for once it outperformed its index peers, rising 0.1% while the likes of the DAX and Cac 40 wallowed in the red though it is worth noting the UK index is still down around 100 points on where it started the week). A 2.2%, $64 per barrel-hitting surge from Brent Crude, and subsequent gains from BP (LON:BP) and Shell (LON:RDSa), helped the FTSE ignore the RBS-led losses in the banking sector that had given it a headache this morning.
Elsewhere the Dow Jones slipped after the bell, though it still managed to hold its head above 24200 despite news that Donald Trump’s ex-national security adviser Michael Flynn is being charged with making a false statement to the FBI. In terms of the day’s US data, the Markit manufacturing PMI arrived at a slightly better than forecast 53.9, but with the ISM reading missing estimates at 58.2.
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