It looks like it’s going to be one of those days. There is almost nothing going on this Wednesday, with the main event – the latest FOMC meeting minutes – a long, long way off.
As is befitting such a sparse economic calendar, the European markets didn’t do much of anything after the bell. Whereas a lack of news greatly benefited the pound on Monday, this morning it’s having the opposite effect, keeping cable the wrong side of €1.32 while sending the currency 0.2% lower against the euro. The FTSE, meanwhile, dipped 0.1% despite the pound’s early losses, though remains 30 or so points above 7500.
Over in the eurozone there was the same lack of excitement. The DAX nudged 10 points higher, the German index continuing to move laterally as it tries to muster the momentum to cross 13000. Only the IBEX broke out this Wednesday, with the Spanish index surging 1% as Catalonia stated it would not implement its independence for several weeks to allow for talks with Madrid.
Elsewhere Dunelm (LON:DNLM) opened the curtains on its new financial year with style, rising nearly 6% to hit a 10 month high following its first quarter update. While the company’s Worldstores acquisition is continuing to affect its gross margins, which fell 2.2% year-on-year, investors were firmly focused on Dunelm’s 9.3% surge in Q1 like-for-like sales. That more than delivers on its previous promise that the new financial year had ‘started positively’, and is a huge improvement on the 2.4% decline in annual comparable sales posted last month. It also firmly separates Dunelm from the struggling DFS (LON:DFSD), something the company has been keen to do in recent weeks, stating in September that it is ‘not in the [same] realm’ of big ticket items as its perpetually half price-sale offering peer.
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