European equity markets are slightly in the red as traders lock in their profits from last week’s broadly positive move. The DAX and the CAC 40 saw fresh record highs last week, while the FTSE 100 hit a multi-month high, so a small pullback today is hardly surprising.
The price of oil has rallied after power is starting to shift towards Mohammaed bin Salman – the crown prince of Saudi Arabia. Mohammaed bin Salman is in favour of the OPEC production cut, and traders are fearful the coordinated production freeze may be extended. In London, oil related stocks like Enquest (LON:ENQ), Soco International (LON:SIA), Premier Oil (LON:PMO) and Cairn Energy (LON:CNE) have been helped by the strong energy market.
Shares in BTG (LON:BTG) are down 4.4% after a court ruling in the US went against them. The healthcare group was found to have broken s distribution agreement – BTG will have to pay out $55.8 million. The share price of BTG hit its highest level in over two years last week, so the sentiment is bullish. If the stock can hold above the 700p mark, it could target 834p – its high all-time high.
EUR/USD is a touch lower today after Spain, Italy, France and Germany all posted services PMI data for October that came in below estimates. William Dudley of the Federal Reserve is due to speak at 5.10pm (UK time), and there is talk he is going to announce his retirement.
GBP/USD is edging up this morning as the pound continues to attract bargain hunters in the wake of the sever sell-off on Thursday. We are not expecting any major economic indicators to be announced from the UK or US today.
We are expecting the Dow Jones to open 12 points lower at 23,527, and we are calling the S&P 500 down 2 points at 2585.
TripAdvisor (NASDAQ:TRIP) and Avis Budget (NASDAQ:CAR) will announce their third-quarter figures today.
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