Stock markets in Europe are lower on the day as they continue their broader move lower, which they have been in since late May to early June. News flows have been relatively thin, and the since central banks in the West are edging towards a more hawkish outlook, investors are cashing in their positions.
Shares in Marks and Spencer (LON:MKS) are down on the day as the retailer revealed a drop in first-quarter sales, but on the bright side the drop in sales in slowing. The clothing and home division has long been their weak spot, and the company hopes to have a positive like-for-like sales increase by the end of the year. The international business and the new Simply Food stores are performing well.
The EUR/USD was helped by better than expected industrial output numbers from Italy. Italian industrial output rose by 0.7% in May on a month on month basis, while traders were expecting an increase of 0.5%, and it was an improvement on April’s decrease of 0.4%. It is encouraging to see the turnaround since Italy is the third largest economy in the eurozone and there are questions still hanging over its banks.
The GBP/USD will be in play this morning as Andy Haldane and Ben Broadbent, of the Bank of England, will be speaking at 11am and 12.30pm respectively. Mr Haldane hasn’t been shy about expressing his hawkish views lately, and dealers will be expecting him to reiterate that outlook.
We are anticipating the Dow Jones to open 10 points higher at 21,418, and we are calling the S&P 500 2 points lower at 2425.
At 3pm, the US will report the job openings and labor turnover summary (JOLTS) job openings, and the consensus is for 5.95 million, and that compares with 6.04 million in April.
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